The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-08 00:00:00

Spirit of the Public Journals,

(From the Times.)
"Representative institutions," to quote a dis-
tinguished. authority, "are now on their trial."
The responsibility of showing this principle to its
greatest advantage rests on the Metropolitan Board
of Works, and the scene of the ordeal is the Coun-
cil-chamber, Guildhall. The chosen representa-
tives of this free and enlightened metropolis there
meet from time to time to take measures for its
material improvement, and, as the body is a new
one and its functions important, the public look on
with considerable interest. They have not quite
fair play. The cleansing of the Aegean stable was
only one out of the many labours of Hercules .
and, if we remember right, ho was not set to this till
he had established a reputation by more romantic
hievements. Had he failed in this instance it
would only have shown that the conqueror of lions,
hydras, and boars might be a very indifferent sea-
venger. Moreover, the hero was.not restricted by
the terms of his engagement from making what
use he pleased of all the natural resources at hand.
Our metropolitan senate, however, while repre-
senting the population and receiving the revenues
of a German State, is set first wholly and solely to
the drainage of this great human stable, this dirty
metropolis. That is its only probation. It is a
task in which failure will be not only disgraceful,
but odoriferous and pestilent. It will address itself
to every sense in our bodies. It is a task, too, in
which success will be simply the absence of smells,
headaches, and fevers, things felt when present and
not missed when away. It is hard enough to be
put to such thankless and disagreeable work, but
the conditions attached to it are worse still. It
must be done within four years from the present
time. The whole of the less agreeable products of
this metropolis, inhabited by two millions and a
half human beings, are to be discharged, or other-
wise got rid of, where they may never return
within its very extensive boundaries. While
the Board meets and meets again, consults engi-
neers, receives and discusses plans advocated by
warm partisans and pulled to pieces by still warmer
opponents, there sits above another Board, with a
cdrtain Chief Commissioner, who has engineers and
lawyers at his elbow. Still higher above this
Board sits a Parliament that has prescribed these
hard, if not impossible conditions, and compelled
the Chief Commissioner to put his veto on all plans
which his engineers and lawyers tell him are not
fully and exactly in accordance with the act. The
Metropolitan Board of Works have thus to go by
a "letter," the "spirit" of which is rendered by
another interpreter, who has no discretion in the
matter. They seem to us in rather evil case, and
likely to pay dear for the honour of representing
their fellow-citizens. However, they knew what
they had to do, and they must do it as well as they
can.

Thus far they have done nothing with the main
subject in hand. They have discussed scheme
after scheme, and committed themselves deeply to
one or two that have turned out to be at vari-
ance with the terms of the act, carefully de-
signed to prevent a return of the sewage to
the metropolitan boundary. The result has
been that the Board has been sent back like an
idle boy to its lessons. Like hungry Sancho, as fast
as it fixed its affections on a dish, the Court physi-
cian has put his wand on it. This is very hard. To
the nose of a sanitary reformer a sewer or a "sump,"
an "elongated cesspool," or a "deodorising appa-
ratus," can become as fragrant as an "olla podrida."
The Board is to be pitied, yet it is hard to see why it
should be always running its head against a brick
wall. Were they not honest citizens, their obstinacy
would suggest a suspicion of revolutionary designs,
but Parliament in this country is a very dead
wall, and the Chief Commissioner appears to do his
duty as a " buffer" with great solidity. Nor is the
subject itself of their common deliberations, though
in other respects disagreeable enough, fertile at
rsosolutions. The real fact of the case is, that our
'worthy metropolitan representatives are not the
greatest men in the world. Of their condition we
speak not, though certainly few people in London
know who represents their own district, much less
any other. There is a want of some other sort of
greatness, and greatness is wanted for this subject
as much as for any other. No doubt, ladies and
gentlemen surrounded by lawns and parterres, or,
may be, the still sweeter heather, with the rivulet
at their feet or the waterfall over head, will smile
at the idea of heroic attributes in so disgusting a
matter. If they do, they have forgotten that
pretty story in their Lampriere quoted above, as
well as another of which Themistooles was the
hero ; and they have also forgotten the great rule
of common sense, and of religion as well, that
greatness and goodness have respect to the mind
rather than the matter.
Surely, in a matter so deeply affecting the health
of more than two millions of people, the Board is
too sensitive to the magnitude or expense of a plan.
It is true that a plan may be costly and bad at the
same time, but when one considers that in these
days we think nothing of a railway with embank-
ments, tunnels, and viaducts forty miles long, and
an expenditure of two millions, to shorten the dis-
tance between two provincial towns, a series of
works of that length and that cost does not seem
an extravagant price to pay for the purgation of
this metropolis. Far bo it from us to throw new
elements of discord into the perpetual hubbub of
the Metropolitan Senate by taking up any particu-
lar plan ; but we must say that they show a sin-
gular reluctance to carry out the plain intentions
of the higher Legislature. They still hug the me-
tropolitan districts; measures distances with pain-
ful exactness ; dinuss the meaning of the word
" near ;" refer again and again to their engineer
for the ups and downs of refuse matter in the
Thames ; and, as one of the Board expressed it
the other day, seem bent on a " close shave."
It is not a case for a close shave. There is an•
evident parity of reasoning between the supply
of pure water and the disposal of refuse,
the difference between the two cases being
rather of momentary than of permanent value.
It may happen, indeed, that a man may be more
anxious to quench his thirst than to clean his cot-
tage or purify the air that he breathes ; but when
bad drainage, and consequent bad air, induce
disease and shorten life, it is in the long run as
much a question of life and death as the supply of
pure water. Yet for the supply of pure water
Rome had aqueducts stretching over the Cain pagna
amounting altogether to hundreds of miles, of
coin sal dimensions and the-best masonry. There
was not a single city in the empire without its
aqueduct ; and, even when it lay on a fine river,
as in the instance of Metz, on the Moselle, a moun-
tain stream 20 or 30 miles off was still brought to
the town, for the advantage of purity or elevation.
Why, then, should L-vion grudge the expense of
similar works for an object of equal importance ?
All experience is against half measures and make-
shift schemes. The Board of Works consulted
°crummy in Westininster.hridge,and thereby throw
70,0001. into the river. LOI1(1011 18 an itunienssi
city. Its wants aro gt eat. " &Ware of little wars,'
said the Duke, and it may be said on an occasion
like this, " Beware of little works." They have
all to be done over again, and the next generation
that has to pay for new works, as well as the debt
on the old, will not thank us for our parsimony.
If it is possible at an expense not absolutely un-
reasonable and ruinous to carry the refuse of this
metropolis down to the sea, by all- means let it be
done. The property of the metropolis can bear it,
and, if not, seeing that the State is extracting
millions of money from our houses in the shape of
inhabited house duty, property tax, and succession
tax, it may well be called on to give us some of it
back again for a purpose of national as well as local
importance. The labours of the Sanitary Commi-
ssion that L r 1 Panmure is justly proud of cost the
country not a trifle. But London is a camp quite
as important as that lately in the Crimea, and its
army is fifty times as numerous. So let us make
up our mind to a good round sum in this matter ;
and, as Parliament, in one of ite heroic moods, has
fixed the conditions of the task, perhaps it
will
hai;re the decency to take a share in the cost.

(From the Daily News of this day.)

The complimentary extent to which the admis-
sion of the Daily News into Paris is interrupted by
the Imperial Government increases rather than
diminishes the interest we take in France, and the
hopes we entertain that, she is destined before long
tor re-enter the ranks of Free, States. Certain we e that it is'by this means only-dm:l she mill ever'
secure secure tl!is benefits of Free Trade. The present
tariff
most of
is import ditties into France is worthy of the
tiniesvarTrens legislation of the least enlightened
' First of All, the Government taxes the raw
materials of the manufactures which it forces into
existence ;
by the Govern:
paternal in the manufacturers are permitti-d
affects so rob the people,- for which it
legislation,. thataw-i'' "14' It is of a piece with this
hat the shortest road to
ittho
a foreig,n journal points out
general freedom, thin to freedom of trade is through
which is described by: Imperial Government,
the cause of Ti'Yee rp ,
_Lraii:arliniron.; to be denoted to
,iteocti`9cates every copy of
the journal the moment reaches the capital. As
however the higher functionaries of
we will tali the State most
themselves peruse the remarks whici 1 will I:
permit others to read, which they not
the liberty of
giving them an English view of
it is necessary to of the French Protectionists. the present policy
. To understand this policy
derived
ex-
plain that an enormous proportio
materials d
dredths, in fact,. of the French customs
11-4" Y 99-hun-
from heavy duties levied on raw
feature and of food. For example—as
ls.tof mann._
by a recent return in the Moiliteur--..1 appears
tile atoms