The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

METROPOLITAY•BOARD OF WORKS.

( From tke Times.)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief
Commissioner of Public Works, and a deputation
of the Metropolitan Board of Works had a meeting
on Thursday to discuss one of the most important
points connected with the new sewage scheme—
namely, the cost of the works, and the method of
providing for the expenditure. To this complexion
we must come at last. If we still wish that the
town shall be effectually drained of its complicated
pollutions—if we are still of opinion that in the
improved sanitary condition of the metropolis we
shall get a quid pro quo for the money which we
shall certainly be called on to disburse in order to
carry our design into effect, we must not shrink
from handling the estimates. Let us, then, at
once look at the ugly side of the question. The
Chairman of the Metropolitan Board applied to
the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the sum of
4,000,0001., as the amount of expense which we,
the ratepayers, shall be called upon to meet. We
need not, of course, be very diffuse upon the point
that it was not Mr. Thwaites' idea that the charge
for the drainage of the metropolis was to be thrown
upon the backs of the general contributors to the
national income. The request of the Metropolitan
Board amounts to this—that Government should
borrow the money upon the best possible terms,
and then lend it to the Board, and to their suc-
cessors. The rateable property of the metropoli-
tan area is the security offered for the loan. It
is asked that Government should endorse this
security, so that the money may be obtained on
better terms. The present rateable value of the
property offered in security is 11,150)0001., and it
is calculated that a rate of 3d. would suffice to
repay the loan in fifty years. The main drainage
scheme is to absorb about 3,000,0001. of the money
so borrowed ; the other million is to be devoted to
the payment of arrears which have been cast upon
the present Board, and to various metropolitan
improvements. When we add that this sum of
4,000,0001. is to be paid in by the lender in quar-
terly payments, but so that at the least 1,00,000/.
shall be paid up every year, we have said enough
to put our readers iu possession of the necessary
figures and facts upon which they are called upon
to form their decision.
Now, the metropolitan ratepayers will not shrink
from the expenditure even of so consideraVe a sum
as 4,000,0001., provided they are satisfied that they
are to receive their money's worth in exchange. We
are all agreed about the necessity of finding some
vent for the sewage of the town at a distance from
the metropolitan area, and of defecating the river
Thames. We are also agreed upon the point that no
' half-measure will suffice. The work as done must
• stand, and be sufficient for the end in view. The
ratepayers will yield a far heartier and readier con-
sent to a largerexpenditure for a proper and final re-
suit than to a lesser expenditure with the probability
' superadded that in a few years the work must be re-
commenced and the question reopened. This is not
only aquestion of policy, butone of duty. We are,very
properly, about to call upon our children and grand-
children to contribute their quota to the purification
of the town which they will inhabit when we, who
have made the settlement, have long sinced passed
away. It is, then, our paramount duty, as far as
human foresight may avail, to guard their interests
and to save them from the necessity of constantly
recurring expenditure. Let us, then, at once in-
sist on having a thorough measure in reference to
this sewage question. It appears from expressions
used by Sir Benjamin Hall at a recent interview
with a deputation from the Metropolitan Board,
that the Government does not disallow the prin-
ciple that, beyond a certain point, the ratepayers of
the metropolis have a right to look to the general
taxpayers of the country for assistance in carrying
out a larger and more magnificent scheme for the
drainage of the metropolis of the empire. We do
not shrink from doing our part, and doing it
liberally, but when we have fairly complied with
the terms and spirit of the recent act it seems but
reasonable that the nation should help us in the
execution of a national work. Let us, however,
for the moment confine ourselves to the immediate
subject of the conversation which occurred on
Thursday in Downing street. The Chairman of
the Metropolitan Board wants the Government to
assist him in borrowing 4,000,0001. for the purpose
of executing certain works ; but what works ?
We protest most emphatically against the principle
that the Government is to fin the money first,
and then that the Board of Works is to devise a
method for getting rid of it. There will be no kind
of difficulty in frittering and jobbing away
4,000,000/., but we would not put the very best
officials in the presence of such a temptation. The
facts at present stand thus ;—The Metropolitan
Board has produced a plan for carrying down the
metropolitan sewage to Eritb, or thereabouts, and
for discharging it there into the river. The Chief
Commissioner of Works has put his negative ou
this plan for alleged non-compliance with the spirit
of the act of Parliament. The moot points between
the dissident functionaries are still under discus-
sion, and, although it is possible that they may
ultimately arrive at some agreement, this agree-
merit will represent, not the best plan for draining
the metropolis, but the result of a compromise be-
tween adverse disputants. The ratepayers will
look with the greatest suspicion upon such a set-
tlement, because they will be well aware that it is
no settlement at all. In afew years time the screw
will be put upon us again, and the language then
held will be—" You cannot stop short now ; you
have already sunk 3,000,0001. or 4,000,0001. in
the execution of these works. Time, which proves
all things, has proved that they were not adequate
for the end in view. The alternative now is to
spend a million or two more, or to acquiesce in the
conclusion that the original expenditure has been
fruitless and thrown away. The river is still f ml,
the town still unwholesome, but with a little sup-
plementary budget we can put this all to rights."
Experience has shown us in such cases that there
is nothing for it but to make fresh sacrifices with
the best possible grace ; for whatever may be the
feelings of the patient, his reason tells him that
he must escape from it, at whatever cost.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, we trust, will
not give the assistance of the Government towards
the borrowing of half-a-crown on account of the
Board of Works until a final and satisfactory plan
has been devised for carrying off the sewage of the
town. If he does so he will simply evoke a spirit
of discontent and auger which will endure against
every successive Government until the question is
settled in some other way. When the money is
once provided the Board will have it all its own
way ; the attention of the ratepayers will be called
away to other objects of more immediate, though
not of greater real iutersst. In the end, this great
SUM of 4,000,0001. will be spent nobody will know
bow, and we shall but have exchanged ere nuisance
for another. The Chancellor
of the Exchequer had
the good sense to see, nclthe spirit to declare, on
Thursday that in effect athe animus of the ratepayers,
present and to come, constituted the real security
for the loan which the Government were called upon
to guarantee. Future Boards would, no doubt, in
terms be held to the
into by their executingpreclecassoslt they
of contracts enters d
made default in
the payment either of interest or principal a tnanda.
Plus might be procured
which would soon bring the
is the Queen's Bench
metropolitan repudia-
mett
tors to their senses.
anueeenough,but f
what Government would Llequeath
There would peeaocy o discord to its successors
the musteirritating kind between open
-warfare of
Government of the day on the one site and the
Londoners on the other. Why should the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, without any correlative
advantage,
invest the public money or stake the
public credit on such stormy credit? This reason-
amain, however, only applies to the case in which
the scheme for draining the metropolis should he
found justly tainted with suspicion. Let us have
such a plan as will recommend itself to the assent
of the ratepayers by its obvious sufficiency and com-
pleteness, and all such objections will drop at once.
The ratepayers, seeing that a good bargain has
been made for them, would cheerfully carry out
their part of the contract. Our children, too,
when their time comes for dealing with debits and
Medits, seeing that their fathers did the best for
them which could be done, will not be reluetaut to
pay the share of the price of a clean London. At
present Mr. Thwaites is clearly putting the cart
before the horse. We must have the plan first,
and be :shall have the money afterwards, if ap
prove the plan. Now, is it not true that the plan
which he and his fellow's have brought forward
bas been devised under the simple WO, of satis-
fying the terms of the act in the most M9a,gre
manner possible ? He has, -we think, erred e -
aa
as; to the
feelings of his constituent.% What we
want
fro m the Metropolitan Board ie net the most
economical plan which can he devised, but the plan
wbich will best combine economy with a satisfeee
tory result; and it cannot be said that to throw the
sewage of London into the river at Erith, to be,
-washed backwards and forwards by the flux. and
reflux of the tide, is a
done at all, let
satisfactory
result.
lie
work is to be •tbe dn lf
aii-
ner worthy of the City and of the nation, in
nora ret us
stop as we are. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
will best
consult the wishes of the London rate-
payers and the credit of his own administration by
withholding all assistance from the Metropolitan
Board until then have produced a really satisfac-
tory scheme for draining the metropolis.

CRYSTAL PALACE. -- ONE SHILLING DAY, Friday,
'-Dec. s.—Admissions on payment, 237 ; ditto by season
'ekes, 181; -tong Tisitorg,-483.