The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-04 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES.

EMBANKMENT OF THE THAMES.
This committee met again yesterday—Sir Joseph
Paxton in the chair.

Mr. Scott, City Chamberlainovho had been exa-
mined on a former day, was again called. He pro-
duced three Acts of Parliament, of the present
reign, empowering the corporation of London to
borrow £300,000 for making certain improvements
in the city of London, including New Cannon-
street. The coal duties were not specifically men-
tioned in any of these acts. The rental of land
belonging to the corporation in the City was
£lOO,OOO per annum, about £40,000 of which was
leasehold property, which would expire in seven
years, so that their permanent income might be set
down at £60,000. Since 1832 the corporation had
paid £302,480, which went to the credit of the
coal meters, whose employment was destroyed by
Parliament, and the corporation undertook to pen-
sion them in order that the experiment of weighing
coal might ho tried. The expenditure of the cor-
poration was somewhat as follows in round figures :
—Magistrates, about £7,000; police, between
£9,000 and £lO,OOO, one-fourth of which was paid
by the City, and the remainder out of the Consoli-
dated Fund ; prisons, £6,000 ; Holloway Prison,
£5,700 ; Debtors' Prison, £5,400 ; administration
of criminal justice, about £8,000; coroner, £BOO ;
Lord Mayor, Mansion-house; sheriffs, keeping up
Guildhall, printing and stationery, about £5,000,
which, with some other items, made a total expen-
diture of about £BO,OOO a-year.
Mr, Alderman Cubitt—ln addition to this annuai
expenditure, the corporation had, during the last
twenty years, laid out very large sums of money ;
£92,000 for the new prison at Holloway, a portion
of which was paid off recently. They had
also paid £B,OOO for the Debtors' Prison, and
for the new civil courts probably £lO,OOO
(which were for the benefit of the whole
country) ; and during the last ten years they had
expended £11,600 a-year on metropolitan improve-
ments—that is, in the improvement of streets still
going on in conjunction with the Office of Works.
The contribution of £200,000 to the fund for the
construction of the Metropolitan Railway was made
by the corporation with the view of restoring the
value of their property in the neighbourhood of
New Victoria-street, in Smithfield, and in the
neighbourhood of the old Fleet Prison, and he felt
convinced the outlay would be remunerative.
The Chairman requested the witness to furnish
the committee with the estimated value of the pro-
perty to which he referred.
Witness said he was prepared to give the com-
mittee all the information in his power, and was
proceeding to reply to the question put by the
chairman, when

gMr. Alderman Cubitt objected, saying he was at
a loss to know what this committee, sitting on the
question of the embankment of the Thames, had to
do with an inquiry into the property of the cor-
poration of London.
The room was ordered to be cleared, and when
the public were again admitted no decision on the
point was announced ; but _ _

Mr. Scott was recalled, and in reply to the chair-
man, stated that the corporation were very favour-
able to an embankment of the Thames, and twenty
years ago they had originated a plan for the em-
bankment of both sides of the river.

Mr. Penrose, architect and surveyor to the dean
and chapter of St. Paul's Cathedral, was next
examined. He described the nature and character
of the strata on which the construction of the
sacred edifice rested. He did not apprehend any
danger from the sewer proposed to be carried near
the cathedral, supposing proper care and caution
were used in the construction. An open cutting
would be highly dangerous and objectionable.
Mr. Perry, a vestryman of St. Luke, Chelsea,
was next examined at considerable length in re-
ference to the efforts which had been made by that
parish to secure an embankment of the river from
Battersea-bridge to Vauxhall-bridge.
The committee then adjourned.