The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-01 00:00:00

the arebif.4:!DtA f,"....t.tel tilt Ttriti.ah idttl4errin ao effeo-
tually as to Phu,. out every bit of sun find light'oa
.the tianth side ; but then in those dais the ottiod* I
was ih,,ug';.c. Wcrth Alle sacriticeri-antl:44att- '-•-, ••- ' , • . ei1'444111t,-..‘-:,
e'reet the moat, maguititent La& portiLiya... •... '• 1,
~..,_ ,1-. ..7.....--, -i, -- .1
nada iu the world. Two years ago the..Bi.i (I.tr :,-St eAke'L
lA*
lie had. arrived at a mord er,maion-oen -' -..14- 4•24''''' --c,e . - ..-' •
these subjects, and accordingly when th l'ir;Z:l;*6‘2;',. ' -.••-,,,r.,. ~ .:
Nts
a room to road in theyi.latit one actria I 1.,./p., '" .' .'''' - -, • 't.,:,,,i444.....
-fortha purpose, though the wal's are p •,1
~,,,,,,., 4, " ~,
and the douse iron, brick,' an 4 i ayier,„&pac - : ':'',l gli--., .9/71`;
if we have to' deplore the delay that has .occuAted a. - kra _ ' •
in dealing with the seavage andt.the Thames.. it *"."" 611 ' • ......
is a consolaticin to reflect thg lie have escaped'. t.
thereby works of a veryinapcaupg, but useltss ells-
radar., We have eseared tali reim,of that genius .•
. .
who would have gic-,11, us..,supti ~ a structtire
.aa • . •
Wa erloo-bridge p0.:h.,1;e4c9t.0 Pat ersea to Woel:
wich—the admira+.ioA. °COW w9ild, in,more senses
than one. - . - g'trir •-•,•.• - .
-Now, ibis is pre-einitteiet4)4#ll,eiron a,:;:e. , Our . ' '
oaut . are; i on, thoruzli the ma.r, its .ade a hard
.shade
fi,2,itt to get in. :it t......,2,e.k. • , tir builders -got •
an: innings at tip, hri,igee.no, fosi;tous, But-iron
is everywhere supplintine.ol/141011terials- . Who •
does not tfino:liber the JP:A.46w trtuaks of trees that
used to c,,ity--y the pat'itr,atiekt,:-Iwootleu noSta for •
our oil- lamps ? Wilia-,:was 4•-trapyd was brick or
stone. W hat an eaklbeira coplil not span must.be
covered with au arch; and torihe arch there Must
be buttres-es, solid haunches, stuffing, and tying.
So we beg to suggest .t,hat ;a hearing be given to
those engineers wk.) propose to deal with this teat-
ter in the spirit of an iron age. The. Crystal. alace
in the Bark ;and its.successor a• Sydenharn wire
built with wonderful cheapness, speed, punctuality, .
and, we: may add, stability, because they Were
simply multiplications of a few iron types. ' The
pillars, girders, , windows, heights, distances, and
other, e!iments, being the same, the joiningatlie
same, and everything • fitting in to everytgnk,
the work could be prepared in many places at once,
and put together by the aid of machinery equally
fitted to the purpose, and equally applicablV to •,
every part of the work. Why cannot the tno-t ob-
noxious part of our sewage, and not mere drainage,
be conveyed in iro
pipes along and just tic:Act-the
.
banks of the river fir enough for the purpose f' We
say far enough, for it appears to us unnecessary to
settle that point at once. If any one given iSpiat
should not prove far enough, it will always be pos.-
Bible to pr.-long the iusufficient pipe as far as we
lease If, too ohe pipe of the largest bont..pos-
P ' • ,
inble should netebe enough we can have another,
•
or ten others, side by side. At some watering-
places pipes of this sort have had several continua-
tiins, till, instead of one pipe depositing its con- •
teiatOktoleep high and low water, there aro half-a-• • .
F:N.A.-eut , a 'Wieder off' mile into the sea.;4'v-,-----*,i,'ity-4.*:•
SlioultiU pipe leapt at the jokOngs, that cite le
set right. They WOui.TholltipoVhdAlttecrilee Mx*. .0._„:
..__
.: .
- r- -

heaps of rubbislt, like the iictoria Sewer. There
they are, at all events ; and, unless they are joined
in some marvellous way so as to make a dislocation
or a twist irreparable, each joint will be only like
ono vertebra in a backbone.
We point this out as the right way of dealing
with the sewage, specially so called. Of course,
no piping, and no other plan for carrying off our
swage to the sea, will suffice for the surface
drainage, or the " storm water" of the me-
tropolis. .It ,is rather hard upon any engi-
neer to expect him to, convey fifty miles across
country the occasional deluge that submerges a
hundred square miles of hill and plain. But there
are two special nttisances that we think ought to be'
specially dealt with. The Gas Companies ought to
be compelled t 3 dispose of their " blue billy," as
it is called, themselves, without-adding it to the
natural obligation of our overtasked river. No
wonder that the Thames water is bad when hun-
dreds of tens of downright druggists' poison are
thrown into it week by week, without a soul to say
nay. We have a right to he protected ft out every-
thing else bet simple sewage. Now, as things are
in these days, this is an affair of machinery from
first t 3 last, and admits of the exacttst calculation.
We know to a gallon how mue:h water is. supplied
to a hour-. We know the supply, which is never
exceeded, though often not reached. With a cer-
tain allowance for additional rainwater at certain
times, it will be easy to provide sufficient sewers—
as much iron as possible—for the water that passes
through our hoeses. If eeces-ary, and if the ordi-
nary supply of water is not enough to keep site
pipes clean, they can be ocra.,:o•i^l2-
ailyhow, uf the nuisatica, be-
giheing, as it doe', with an artificial and regulated
supply of water, and being controlled by machinery
throughout, appears to us specially susceptible of
a similar treament in tlie river, awl right down to
the sea, if necessary. It is, however, the' chief
merit of this proposal that it can be commenced at
once, and we can feel our way to an indefinite ex-
`,cnsion of it afterwards.

. .
(From the Daily News)
England is an emieently practical nation, and
somewhat selfish ; our constitution is based upon
the principle that a man who is just outside the
class whose wants are supplied frcm day to .
day by the sweat of their brow has his feel-
ings and•his wishes represented in one branch of
our legislature, and we are yearly placing our mem-
bers more and more under the direct control and in-
fluence of their constituents. Members are being
detached from party tactics and the personal in-
fluence of leasers. The unity of thouelar and action,
as represented by a majority in the House of Com-
mon?, is swayed by no fixed principl 3 of leader-
ship or expeoiency. The Conservatives strain their
, conscience and belie their name by parish g Radical
measures, and the liberals vete with them. How-
-ever we may blame ministuis, we consider the re-
sult beneficial to progress. It is one of those turn-
ing points in our hi'tory inaugurated by S.r Robert
Pe-l's secession, which brings jab prominence the
i dictum of " measures, and not men." _
That is constitutional policy working its end
through a disunion of thought, a balance of con-
tradictions ; but after all, nobte lords and honour-
able members, learned judgts and right reverend
divines are but wen, who have five senses in com-
mon. The putrescent state of the Thames has
attacked their sense of smell ; doAors write to the
papers that this is a prelndo to cholera, fevers,
dysentery, and what not, and a unanimous howl is
raised against the Government for allowing such a
stench to go abroad, and a peremptory opinion is
expressed that it must be put down at once..
Hera is' a grand opportunity for Lord Derby to
use his macician's wand; a practical step is
wanted ; and, for once, all the discordant elements,
from the Crown to the trietropatan voter, are
unanimous. If Lord Derby will only look the
matter boldly in the face, and act upon his own
conviction of what is right, the wand is in his hand,
and he can the it. But we can give him one piece
of advice :—Do not refer this question of the Thames
and metropolitan drainage Li, any more.committe;.3
or conim;s4ions. Every title of information that
can possibly he required is eloeady available iu a
wlv de library of blue-bp6ks and reports, dating
from 1641 to the present year. The facts upon
which a remedy must be based are known, any
further inquiry will only distort them to serve
personal considerations and advance the norrums
of nopractival scientific men.
The state of the Thames is agerevated by two
ca,,,, :—Tira sewage of London daily flowing into •
it, and tie accumulation of sewage in the form of
black mud along its banks between Lambeth and
Loedon-hridge.
The rem.: dy is self-evident : —To carry the Lon-
don sewage so far down the Thames that it shall •
not return into London proper with the flowine
o
tide, and to do away with the mud banks.
First, we most deal with the sewage. The great
fact which strikes one at first is the waste of valu-
able manure in allowing the sewage of nearly three
millions of inhabitants to flow into the sea. That
is no doubt a paradox which will be !solved 'some
day. Our present aim, however, is to prevent three
millions of people being poisoned, not that of utilis-
ing their feces. Granted that some system of deo-
dorisatiou is available, it is evident that the appli-
cation of it ctnnot Io in the heart of London. If
every house could deodorise its own sewage, the
problem would be solved ; but the most ardent ad-
vocates of the system admit the necessity of cen-
tralisation in reservoirs, and these reservoirs must ,
be on t of London.
The drainage of London must, therefore, be car-
r7ed out of town by some other conduit than the
river. The simplest and most efficient plan is that
of interception, i.e., to make on each side of the .
Thames, and parallel to it, large covered drains
which shall intercept all the drainage and carry
it below the metropolitan area. The point of out-
fall into the river must be low enough down to
all ,w of the sewage being discharged into it only at
the turn of high-tide on the ebb, so as to prevent'
it front being brought back above that point by
the return tide, tint still rot into salt water, as
fresh water tends to deodorise sewage, salt water,
r enders it mre putrescent. This limits the point
of ou';fall to some point between Sea Reach and
Woolwich, and renders it necessary to have reser.
coins large enough to keep
back the sewage during
flood-tide.
At these reservoirs deodorising works may here-
after be estallished, so as to prevent any Sewage
escaping into the river; but whether this can be
done or not, the river will bare been purified
above Woolwich.
The tide flows five hours and ebbs seven, so that
odfiltuhteed pointthat
if the sewage is discharged only during ebb tide a
very small prorortion of it will come back to within
four or five
ofno dirlcheaffreg4B, andwm
thenit Killin assuming,
mbeilegso
therefore, that the point of
()offal' for the intercepting drains will be between
result;