The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-10 00:00:00

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from the sewer; ? If they made the reservoirs in the
way proposed, for 21 ht.urs 'that sewage would be
discharged and carried down for: miles, _being mixed
with a volume of water in the" pr ,portion of 400 to
I. That was the mixture thit was proposed to pass
Erith, and be would- flak wbetker that board
was prepared, at an outlay of between, 1,000,000/.
and '2,000,000/. to carry that HO much further down
the river? Thk, works of the • Romani Iliad been
pointed oqt to them :.but the question was were they to
carry out large works that w'ere'noerequired ? If they
executed iiich works they woulddm large, but Alley would
not be great. Ifs hail detained the, board longer than he
intended, but he eat down with dontllenee, hoping that
the plan for catrying the untiall at B'(''') would be carried
out, and he accordingly moved that it be adopted.

Mr. FEW seconded the motion..
Mr. WILKINsoN said he thoughtlie choutd most con.
stilt the convenience of the board by submitting the mo-
tion on the subject of deodorising, of which he had placed
a notice on the paper, as awarnenciment ; one discussion
would thus suffice. Referring to the report of the depu-
tation, he confessed it was to him very unsatisfactory.
The only communication made to them by the chief corn-
rnisaiooer was such as might well have been made by
letter, without any deputation, and such as ought to
have been made nearly six months ago, and thus `spared
the board the tedious and unprofitable discussions upon
the outfall with which they and the public were alike
wearied. He failed to perceive any advantage in the
point adopted by the chief commissioner over that sub-
'pitted to him by the board at all equivalent to the in.
crease tif expense of upwards of 100,0001. involved by it.
It the Team oa were to be admitted at ail as the receptacle
of f ul sewage, surely it would have been snore expe lient
to have obtained without expense, and by the mere
breath of a Miniiter, such an alteration .of the word-
ing of the act asenould have permitted the discharge at
the point I 3 than to mulct the ratepayers of the metro-
polis in this enormous addition, simply to s itisfy the
striegency of the technical language of a section of
the act; for the board would remember that it had
been abundantly proved that point B was as efficient
for all practical purposes of purifying the metropolis
as. the point now ferced upon them. After express-
ing his strong dissatisfaction at the manner in which
the late deputation to the chief commissioner on the
subject of plan B conducted the interview, Mr.
Wilkinson proceeded to urge the board once
more to pause before it stamped with its final
approbation a plan which not a single member believed
would be carried out in the ft:lmin which it was sent up
to the Government. Let them not incur the discredit of
sending up an imperfect and impracticable plan, after all
this weary and unprofitable discussion—a plan which
would be scouted by the public, and for the modification
of which, to meet the real wants of the metropolis, the
Government, and not the board, would obtain the credit.
He would not weary the board by d welling at any length
upon the very grave objections which attached, not only
to the present plan, but to any plan proposing adischarge
of und, • Icrised sewage into the river, but Le inust be per-
mitted shortly to notice them, that he might contrast
thrm with those said to attach to the plan of deodorising
which he advocated. In the evidence given before the
Hogue of Commons on the Drainage Bill it was stated
chat the daily sewage of London would cover the area of
Hyde-park eight feet deep if spread over it ; or, if in the
form of a stream, would be in depth and bulk equal to
the Thames at Kingston. Was it not almcst an insu!t to
c +rumen sense to argue that such a mass of filth as this
could be daily and continuously discharged into the
Thames without the most intolerable nuisance and injury
to health ? lle had heard' it objected that by the process
uf deodorising the sewage the residue was rendered
valueless as manure. He did not admit this even now
entirely, and he entertained the most sanguine c mfidence
that chemistry would ere long substitute some mode of
precipitation for that by means of acid at present adopted
which would completely preserve to the purified sewage
all the available qualities of manure ; but, conceding for
the present argument that the residues were worthless,
but harmless, was it nothing that by this means the ob-
ject of getting rid of the sewage might be accomplished
without injuring one locality for the benefit of all, and
without depriving the river of its accastomed contribu-
tions of water ? Was not the superior economy of attend.
ing this system equivalent to a large value ? Without
fatiguing the board with statistical details, he was pre.
pared to prove a saving of upwards of a million in the
outlay, as contrasted with the proposed outfall at Long
Reach ; but, indeed, their own engineer had relieved him
from the necessity of labouring this point, he having
himself, in his report, asserted that there would be a sav-
ing of nearly half a million by its adoption for the West-
ern area alone. Surely, then, a complete answer was
furnished to this objection, and it must not be forgotten
that by any plat: contemplating a discharge into the river
the sewage was not only utterly wasted, but rendered
noxious. Another objection was, that the process of deo-
dorising could not be carried out without some nuisance
and that its products were not entirely inoffensive ; but
how entirely this was answered, not by hypothetical as-
,wereicm, like,,tbat %mai %vb.*, those relied who would
penile:le—the board that excessive dilution would purify
the sewage, but by abundant and unimpeachable testi-
mony! Ho might readily multiply instances, but one well
proved fact was as good as a thousand. For nearly two
years had the process been carried on in the large town
of Leicester, and he had himself received personally the
evidence of gentlemen of the first standing and respecta-
bility resident there, and entirely without interest in the
sewage works, that not only had the process been carried on
without nuisance, and the products, tons of which he saw
heaped about on the premises, were inoffensive, but that
the sanitary condition of the town had been strikingly
improved and the river restored to its original purity.
Indeed, their own engineer, Mr. Haywood, an able en-
gineer of the City of London, Mr. Carpmael himself, and
he believed all the leading engineers in the kingdom, ac-
cepted this as an established fact. Butit would, perhaps,
be said his proposal involved endless delay and a re-
opening of the whole discussion. His answer was that it
did not. Their engineer in his report expressly told them
that the system of metropolitan intercepting sewage
which the board had approved could 'readily be adapted
to the plan of deodorisation.' He had noticed the supe-
riority of the deodorising plan in point of economy and
of freedom from engineering difficulties, and the oppor-
tunity it presented of getting rid entirely of the sewage
without inflicting injury upon the locality for the benefit
of all. In addition to this it obviated the necessity for
withdrawing so large a proportion of the supply of water
from the Thames, and permitted the discharge of puri•
fied water at points where such discharge would be of
the greatest value by maintaining the bulk of the stream,
and aiding in the removal of mud banks. It admitted a
Partial and comparatively inexpensive trial. Let it be
applied, as proposed by the engineer, to one district first,
and even if it failed the cost would not be useless ; it
would be so much in furtherance of the present plan.
But if this plan or any other plan for a discharge into
the sea were adopted and failed, the whole expense would
be wasted. In 1853 a Select Committee of the House
of Commons, presided over by Lord Seymour, himself a
Chief Commissioner of Public Works, had reported in
favour of the plan he now advocated. Ali engineering
authority was in its favour. Surely, then, he bad said
enough, and more than enough, if not to prove the sti-
eerriorily of the deodorising system over any other, at
least to induce the board to institute a searching and
competent inquiry before they undertook to reject it.
He pressed it upon them most earnestly from a convic-
tion that they were not performing their duty if they
neglected this, and from a most sanguine belief that such
an inquiry would result in a complete and effective plan
for the drainage of the metropolis, which would reflect
credit upon the board and satisfy the nation.
Mr. CRELLON seconded the motion.
Mr. DOULTON said he objected to plan B—first, be-
cause it did not comply with the act ; secondly, because
it involved the construction of large sewers ; thirdly,
because he did not think it would be a final or satisfac-
tory settlement of the question ; and fourthly, because
he conceived that gross injustice would be committed on
the inhabitants of Erith and other towns if the plan were
carried out. All these exceptions except the first applied
with signal force to plan B*. Besides, there was no
person who for a moment believe I that if plan 135 were
sent up to Sir B. Hall it would be adiipted in its in-
tegrity. They would be affording that right hon. gen-
tleman materials for taking the matter out of the hands
of the board altogether.
Mr. WRIGHT argued very strongly against the system
of deodorisation advocated by Mr. Wilkinson, and en-
tered into a chemical dissertation with a view to show
that the process did not destroy the noxious qualities of
the sewage, but only absorbed it for a time.
Mr. IRwINE supported the amendment, and said the
experiments at Leicester had been perfectly successful.
After a few words from Mr. Howe,
Mr. WARE moved " that the debate be adjourned to
Tuesday next;" but, the motion being negatived,
Mr. D'IFFANGER moved, as an amendment, " That,
inasmuch as the plan B* having an outfall near Rain-
ham Creek, the nearest point to the metropolis at which,
under the Local Management Act, the sewage of London
can be discharged into the Thames, the plan B* be for-
warded to the First Commissioner of her Majesty's
Works, not with a view to its being carried out, as that
would merely be transferring the nuisance from our own
locality to that of our neighbours, but for the purpose of
ascertaining what sum the ratepayers of the metropolis
could he called upon to pay for the extension of the
sewer from West Ham on the north and Deptford on
the south, should Government or any private body be
willing, under the circumstances above mentioned, to
carry the sewage down to the sea or dispose of it by other
means."
Mr. NICHOLAY seconded the amendment.
After a few observations from Mr. Bristow,Mr. Ofror,
and others,
The CHAIRMAN said the board were directed by the
act of Parliament to send up to the Chief Commissioner
a plan to be approved by him. The amendm.ent was
.to
send up a plan not, to be approved by the Chief C. ommie-
sioner. Therefore he thought it was a question that
could not be put.
The debate was then adjourned till Tuesday next.
The board then adjourned.

We learn by the Australian papers received yester•
day that Mr. R. H. Horne, author of " Orion," is a
candidate for a seat in the Legislative Chamber of Vic-
toria. The news of Mr. Horne's elcctiou would gratify
a large class of the public in England.

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