The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-30 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a Court was held for th 3 despatch of pub-
ic business.

CONSERVANCY OP THE RIVER THAMES.

The TowN CLERK informed the Court that on the
21st inst. presentments had been made at a Court of
Conservancy of the navigation of the river being ob-
structed and impeded in consequence of the form of eon-
struction of Battersea and Putney bridges, and of trunks
of trees placed by some persons unknown on the shore
of the river in the parish of Wandsworth. That the
river was contracted and obstructed in consequence of
the form of construction of Battersea and Putney
bridges, as well as by a floating pier or landing place at
the bottom of Essex-street, Strand, and at the Fox-
nnder-the-Hill, near the Adelphi. That on the 28th
inst. a presentment had been made of the banks at the
River Lea being very much out of repair ; of an obstruc-
tion and impediment to the navigation of the same river
by the construction of an iron railway bridge ; of an
obstruction at the entrance of Barking-creek, by the
sinking of a barge ; of the dilapidated state of the cause-
way on the Essex shore, at West Thurrock, opposite
Greenhithe, and that much inconvenience was caused to
the public by the causeway at Grays being much out of
repair ; that large quantities of rubbish, &c., were cast
into Deptford-creek from the premises of Frank Clark
Hills ; that an encroachment had been made in Deptford.
creek by large quantities of refuse being cast from the
Premises of John Bennett Lawes and from the Phcenix
Gas Works ; that the bank of the river at Blackwell-
point required shoring up ; that an encroachment kid
been made at Kirk and Parry's wharf, at Woolwich, h 3 •
a deposit of stores ; of an encroachment by the constru o
tion of a pier and jetty at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwicht;
of an encroachment at the Sea Witch public-house;
Greenwich, by Mr. Bullock's shipsways ; of as
encroachment by the construction of a pier and jetty, at
Frith, with a crane and shears.
These various presentments were referred to the
General Purposes Committee to consider and report
upon.

THE GREAT METROPOLITAN SCHEME OF DRAINAGE.
The LORD MAYOR—I wish to make a communication
to Court, in connection with the proceedings of the
Court of Conservancy which was yesterday held at
Greenwich. Besides thee presentments of the jury a
deputation from the inhabitants of Erith waited on tht
Court, for the purpose of representing to them the gre al
damage to property and probable injury to health tb
might be occasioned if the oaten of the sewers of t hi )
metropolis should remain fixed, as now proposed or su g •
gested, near the village of Erith. (Hear, hear.) I, a
course, assured the deputation, that I would bring t
subject under the notice of my brethren, with a viva
to their representations being forwarded to the Comrni 3.
sioner of Public Works for his consideration. It(
Court of Conservancy have no power whatever in an. 3 •
matter under the direction of Parliament, or over ar:2
officer whom Parliament has appointed to supervise t'n.
Thames. I believe that all my brethren are agreed witl
me in opinion that it is worthy of consideration, when Iv e
are embarking in a large scheme for the removal of th e
sewage from this great metropolis to a distance, that i t
should be taken to a part of the Thames where it is az i-
derstood and agreed that no damage to either propert y
or human life can arise—that is, below Gravesend,
suggested by the deputation. That deputation handed!! in
certain papers and reports of engineers and other pers, 07 as
who might be called to give their opinion with regar 3 to
the project in a sanitary point of view. I therefore i ug-
gest that one of my brethren should move that• tl i ose
several papers be banded to the Remembrancer, in o r der
that they may be transmitted to Sir Benjamin Hall i for
his consideration. I have now fulfilled the pro• a use
which I made to the deputation yesterday, that the s üb.
ject should be brought forward to-clay ; and I have : also
fulfilled the assurance that this Court will do wha bsver
they can to give the representations made to them pub-
licity, and to place them before the officer of the Go yarn-
meht whose duty it is to attend to such matters.
Alderman FINNIS presented a memorial from tl to in-
habitants of Erith, praying that the village migh i not
be made the outlet of the metropolitan system of s awer-
age, which was read by Mr. Woodthorpe, and which
excited a great deal of interest.
Alderman FINNIS then moved that this memorh d and
two other documents, signed by Mr. F. S. Ho) 13 fray
and Mr. R. B. Grantham, engineers, condemnat, ivy of
the Government project for emptying the sewage ( If the
metropolis into the Thames at Erith, and suggesting t hat
it should be carried further down the river before b e ing
discharged into it, be referred to the General Purpoi sea
Committee.

Alderman LAWRENCE, in seconding the motion, in kid
he was very glad that the subject of the outlet fort he
sewage of the metropolis had been brought before t he
Court, as it was most essential that so comprehensive
scheme as that suggested by the Government should be
fully considered before the vast outlay of money requi-
site to carry it into effect was entailed. (Hear, bear.; 1
Alderman COPELAND said he quite approved the io•
tiou for referring the documents brought before the at-
tention of the Court to a committee, but could not hit 'IP
thinking that neither the citizens of London nor the i n-
habitants of the suburbs were at all aware of the exit ir-
mous cost that would result from carrying the propose 31:1
scheme into execution. (Hear, hear.)
The motion was put and carried unanimously, and. at
the suggestion of. Alderman WIRE power was given to
the General Purposes Committee to confer with the 01 ty
Commissioners of Sewers (many of whom were prele nt
and seemed deeply interested) as to the most advis ,le
course to pursue in reference to the subject.
The Court adjourned.

• • PROTESTANT LIFE FIRE ASSURANCE COMPANY
Vice,Chancelfor.Kindersley has called on creditors t to
come id:and prove their debts against the estate of; thl ;8
corapany, otherwise they will be precluded from 'coin
mencing or proSecuting any action for the recorery O. f
them ; and an official manager is to be appointed to in.
vestigate the liabilities and assets.

teisilir
The late article in the Moniteur on the affairs of ' 'b
*
• k -
Spain may be taken as an announcement that theiA y.,,
•
French Government approves the cam. '.,..... t, - y _,
the Queen and her present Minister, and will give
them at least its moral support. We cannot be- ‘
lieve that the public opinion of this country will
acquiesce in the judgment of the Tuileries, bat, as
France seems not likely to convert approval into
active interference, and as England has long aban-
doned the notion that liberal institutions can be
established in any land by foreign intervention, the
disagreement is, perhaps, more speculative than
practical. Treating, then, the ar icle in the Mont
tear as merely an essay on a point of contemporary
politics, we may be allowed to remark on what
seem to us its erroneous views of a country which
has for many years been the subject of attention, •
but is even now but little understood.

What are the occurrences which within the last
few days have agitated Spain ? A Constitutional
Queen, who holds her title to the Crown by legal
enactment against a relative claiming by divine
right, has suddenly dismissed, or caused to resign,
the Minister who during his whole career has been
the champion of responsible government in bar
dominions. Another politician, known only as a
resolute and unscrupulous soldier, has been raised
to supreme power. This substitution of a notori-
ously Absolutist Minister for a man of strictly con-
stitutional views would seem to a foreigner a dan-
gerous act. We might, however, be in the wrong.
But when we see the actual and immediate results
wo can no longer hesitate as to the character of the
change. We find that insurrection immediately fol-
lowed in Madrid, and that for this insurrection the
new Government was thoroughly prepared before-
hand. We find that O'Donnell, taking advantage
_ , •

- -...1.16-f.mwfret**,,ila.anypiwar=l"*.-AT arp,l7l3M- CCM CUM,
trated 20,0'65 men on the capital: His first step was
to surround himself with colleagues who had two
years before, when for a few hours in office, turned
the cannon of the army against the people. The
first act of the new Ministry was the proclamation
of martial law. The Legislative Aaiembly was dis-
persed by force, fired upon when proceeding in
deputation to the presence of the Sovereign, and
driven from their legal place of meeting by grape-
shot. We find the capital in arms to resist this
treasonable violation of public law, and we hear of
a desperate contest, in which the National Guard,
after several hours' fighting, are crushed by the large
forces concentrated on Madrid. The next intelli-
gence is that the Cortes have fled to a provincial
town. Arragon receives the national assembly,
which declares that it has been dispersed by a
monstrous act of military violence. Barcelona is
soon iu revolt, and the flame spreads. At the pre-
sent moment Saragossa is held by an insurgent
army, and we learn that iit the south Malaga and
Granada have not yet submitted. The Ministry is
intent on crushing all resistance to its power, and
everything is postponed until "after the pacification
of the country." Such are the facts. The Sovereign
and her confidant concentrate troops, disperse awl
fire on the Legislature, fight a pitched. battle with
the National Guard, and are now engaged in crush-
ing the liberalism of the provinces. The question
is, what are we to think of suck an act ?
• The Moniteur is especially desirous of one thine.
—that it should not be called a coup d'etat. It
appears that some journals, " blinded by an un-
warrantable preference for a name," have called
the affair we have jast described a coup d'etat.
To this the Mouiteur takes exception., It was
merely the resignation of one Minister and the
substitution of another, and could by no means be
justly called a coup d'etat. Not that the Monitcur
wishes to exclude the Spanish Court more than
any other from occasional recourse to such an ex-
pedient, for it proceeds to lay down the cases in
which it is legitimate. But the acts of the Queen
and O'Donnell, it seems, do not constitute a coup
d'etat. Now, we have no wish to argue on the
precise signification of this popular phrase. Neither
the words nor the idea they express are English,
and we may beside well concede to the Monitcur
stricter accuracy in the use of a political termi-
nology which it has borne no small part in creat-
ing. Whether, then, O'Donnell has or has not
executed a csup (Vaal, he has, by violence and in
pursuance of a premeditated plan, dispersed the
L; gislature, disbanded the National Guard, and
overthrown the constitutional liberties of the
country. We cannot think that this is a gratify-
ing• conclusion to all the struggles and sacrifices of
Spain during more than 20 years. We cannot
think that the man who has committed this act can
be. fitly described as "having attempted to restore
order to Spain, as the first and most indispensable
basis of liberty." Knowing, as we do from expe-
ri that repression must produce corresponding
resistance, and that, however extended and strong
it may be, the reaction must come at last, we are
far from feeling that "it is natural to hail
with sympathy a change of a nature to consolidate
the throne of Isabella II."

;. t ~.;
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~•..x..::~~~

It is not to be denied that on the continent Eng-
land is in many minds the object of suspicion, on
the ground of a supposed selfish and Machiavellian
policy. We who know our own country, how
little the people care about foreign affairs, and how
completely in this their Government represents
them, can hardly conceive that the actions of even
well-informed continental politicians are swayed by
a notion that England is always on the watch for
the extension of her influence in Spain, in Portu-
gal, Italy, and the East. The French politicians
of Louis Philippe's time was always haunted with
the notions of combinations against France, in
which England, supreme over the second-rate
States, should take the lead. This notion, as wild
as that of the bourgeois about Ungland's desire to
monopolise the commerce of de world, was once
widely prevalent, and seems to have left some
traditions even after it has itself passed away. One
of these is the dislike of Espartero, which has dis-
tinguished successive French Governments, regal,
republican, and imperial. The character of tis
well-meaning old gentleman is well known. Ho
_ _

(44

has proved himself during a long career an honest,
brave, and good-hearted man, With principles to
which be has always been ready to sacrifice his
personal interests. His defects have been timidity
and irresolution at a sudden crisis, a want of fore-
sight, and a nature easily imposed upon by the
kind of persons with whom he was likely to be sur-
rounded at the Court of Aradrid. A. politician who
does not feel the great truth that men are bound
to him, not by what they have received, but by
what they expect, is hardly likely to be long in
(Ace anywhere. Espartero is one of these, and,
consequently, he has now to lament—if it be of any
use—the ingratitude of the Queen, the King, and
of O'Donnel himself, his own familiar disciple.
This is the man who, according to notions
now a quarter of a century old, is the repre-
sentative of British influence at Madrid. It is need-

less to say that he has never done anything for us
in Spain, since, of course, there is nothing that we
wish done. Beyond our rock of Gibraltar we hold
nothing on Spanish, or, indeed, on Continental
ground, and our only interest iu Spain is that there
should be a stable Government, under which the
people should live happily and develope themselves
and their resources in their own way. Nor have
Englishmen any wish to uphold a constitution
merely because it is a copy of their own. The time
is past for any such partiality. For 70 years we have
seen the venerable institutions of this kingdom
mimicked with every variety of the sad, the horrible,
and the burlesque, by the unprepared intelligence
of two hemispheres. We look to the establishment
of -Upper and Lower Chambers, the inauguration
of Presidents, and the regulation of Parliamentary
procedures, only with feelings of apprehension and
distrust. Neither from any hope of mat€rial ad-
vantage, nor from any ambition for influence and
prestige, nor from any national vanity, have the
people of this country given their sympathies to
the cause of moderate government in Spain, and
to the man who, to the best of his ability, has been
its constant supporter. Yet it is difficult to say
how much a supposed identity with British interests
may not have injured that liberal cause which. for
the present seems so utterly wrecked.--Times.