The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-21 00:00:00

THE METROPOLITAN GAS QUESTION.

DEPUTATION TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
Yesterday deputations from the various metro-
politan vestries and district boards, waited upon the
Bight Hon. Spencer Walpole, Secretary of State for
the Home Office, for the purpose of presenting a
memorial and calling for the aid of the government
with respect to the present supply of the metropolis
With gas.
On the arrival at the Home Office, the deputa-
tions were introduced by the Hon. Geo. Byng,
M.P.; for Middlesex, and amongst the metropolitan
members present were—Mr. Hanbury, Sir John
Shelley, Viscount" Ebrington, Sir C. Napier, Mr.
Locke, Mr. W. Williams, Mr. Roupell, Mr. T.
Duncombe, and Mr. Ayrton. Mr. Cox, M.P.,
regretted his inability to attend. The deputation
consisted of nearly 100 gentlemen.
The Hon. Mr. Byng, in introducing the deputa-
tions, observed that they were the representatives
of most of the public boards of the metropolis, and
their object was to present amemorial, and address
-the Home Secretary on the important subject of the
recent division of the metropolis into districts by
the several gas companies, and to urge the govern-
ment to induce the House of Commons to grant a
committee of inquiry into the whole metropolitan
gas question.
Mr. Greenwell, the vestry clerk of Marylebone,
read the memorial, to the effect that the gas com-
panies, most of whom had obtained their acts of
parliament on the district basis of competition, had
recently partitioned the metropolis amongst
themselves, thus creating a monopoly by destroying
competition, and one of the principal evils of which
being that the consumers were placed entirely at
the mercy of the metropolitan gas companies in re-
spect
.of price, quality, and quantity. The effect
of this arrangement had already been an increased
price in the tenders to some of the metropolitan
parishes, for the supply of gas to the public lamps,
-and no doubt, as existing contracts expired in other
parishes, the same result would follow. In order
to show that gas is not merely a luxury the memo-
rial pointed to the report of Mr. Lowe, civil engi-
neer to the Chartered Gas Company, stating that
the annual consumptien of coal for gas making in
London was about 840,000 tons, which would yield
7,728,000,000 cubic feet of gas, the value of which,
at 4s. 6d. per 1000 cubic feet, was 1,738,0001. and
that the annual sum paid to the various gas com-
panies in London was nearly 2,000,0001. per an-
num. After stating that some of the gas companies
are not bound to supply gas to parishes or consu-
mers, even at their maximum price, and that
others claim to have the gas owing for by an out-
going tenant paid by an incoming tenant or refuse
the supply, a principle they considered most unfair
—the memorial prayed the Government to support
an inquiry by a committee of the House of Com-
mons into the existing arrangements for the supply
of gas similar to that made respecting the supply of
water to the metropolis, and the Home Secretary
would be pleased to support any measure tending to
destroy the evil effects of the monopoly and other
grievances complained of.
Mr. Hattersley, of Marylebone, and Mr. Young,
of St. Pancras, pressed the matter on the conside-
ration of the right hon. gentleman.
Sir John Shelley and Lord Ebrington urged that
this was a grievance, felt not only by the parishes,
but by the private consumers.
Mr. Redfern, of Newington, said the grand point
was, to enforce upon the companies quantity,
quality, and price.
Mr. Walpole said he confessed that a vary strong
prima facie case had been made out, both by the
memorial and the statements made ; but what he
would suggest was, that the deputation and the
metropolitan members should agree as to the
grounes and details of the inquiry they wished a
committee of the Home of Commons to enter into,
and then he would bring tie whole question before
'Lord Derby. (Cries of "Hear, hear," and marks
of approbation )
The Hon. Mr. Byng, on the part of the depuia-
tic:o, thanked the Home Secretary fir his sugges-
tion ; and it then retirei, highly satisfied with the
result of the interview.

CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING PASS-
PORTS.

Y4sterday was issued a return to the House of
Lords of correspondence re pecting passports.
These communications include letters to and from
English Consuls at certain French ports and the
Earl of Clarendon—letters which have passed be-
tween E irl Cowley and Count Walewski, and Earl
Cowley and the Foreigo-office. Oa the 9th of
March, the Earl of Malmesbury takes up the cones-
pondence. Among the documents is the follow-
ing extract from a letter by Earl Cowley to the
Marl of Malmesbnry, dated March 29 :
" I have Count Walewski's assurance that if it
were practicable for the French authorities at the
ports or on the frontier to distinguish her Majesty's
subjects from foreign refugees, and if it were poss.-
ble to establish an exemption in their favour, her
Majesty's subjects might come and go from France
without passports or questions of any kind. The
return to a stricter system of passports (for there is
nothing new in the present regulations) has been
rendered Leceseary in consequence of the facilities
which a too great laxity had given to evil-disposed
persons to penetrate into France ; Lut the Imperial
Government know well that they have nothing to
apprehend from the British people, who, however
freely they may express their opinions in their own
country, are not in the habit of exciting or partici-
pating in troubles abroad. Her Majesty's subjects,
-therefore, will ever be welcome guests in the Im-
perial dominions, and every facility capable of being
generalised without endangering the principle of
exclusion to which I have adverted above, will be
with pleasure accorded to them.
" I annex a list of the places where French con-
sular visas may be obtained :—Consuls-General :
Gaillard de Ferry, London ; Fleury, Liverpool ;
Count dl Maricourt, Newcastle ; Bruant, Edin-
burgh ; Maubussin, Glasgow : De Burgraff, Dub-
lin. Agent Vice-Consuls : Zanole, Newhaven ~nd
Brighton ; De Rabaudy, Southampton ; Mahon,
Cardiff; Lepage de Longchamps, Swansea ; Lau-
rent, Jersey ; Loyeux, Guernsey."
There is also the following letter, interesting to
the owners of yachts :
" Count Walewski to Earl Cowley.
"Paris, April 8, 1858.

"M. le Comte—Your excellency did me the
honour to write to me on the 2d inst., to inquire
of me whether the production of an Admiralty
warrant and a certificate of one of the English yacht
clubs continues to be suaient to permit owners of
yachts, friends accompanying them, and the crews
of their vessels, to land in a port of the empire.
"The Einperot's Government has not thought
it possible, M. Ie Comte, to establish this except on
to the general regulations which now apply, as
regards passports, to every person presenting him-
se3f on the maritime frontiers of the empire.
Owners of yacht, as well as their travelling com-
panions, must, theref)re,--- provide themseivcs with
regu!ar titres de voyage for occasions on which they
might have to land in France; but as regards the
men composing the crew, tLeir inscription on the
ibip's books is sufficient, as is the case for crews of
merchantmen.—Accept, cite.
(Signed)

"A. WALEWSKI."

LLOYD'S SAIPPING.—(This Day.)

LoiDON, April 21.—Wind at noon, N.E. ; light breeze
*rid fine. -

CARDIFF, April 20.--Wind W.— Arrived—Hilda, from
St. John's.
PLYlfouTli, April 20. Wind s,W. —Sailed—Cathe-
rine, for Quebec.
COWES, April 20.—Wind W.—Arrived—Lady Jocelyn,
(a), irlm 'Calcutta; and left for London ; Asa Sawyer, Rio
Janeiro: -
DARTMOUTH, April 20. Wind E.--Arrived—Flying
Dutchman, from Hamburg.
OF THE WIGHT, April 19.—Arrived—Palm, from St.
Kite's.
• RAMSGATE, April 20.—Wind E.N.E.—Sailed—Meliora,
for Hung Kong.
OFF PORTLAND, April 19. —Arrived —Elise, (Bremen
brig), for Havannah.
OFF DOVER, April 19—Wind N.B. —Arrived—Charles,
from Jamaica.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday Morning.

Calm and fine.
Arrived— Foyle, steamer, from Dablin; Harriett, New-
port. _ _ _

Sailed—Atalanta, steamer, for Jersey; Fuyle, steamer,
London; Indus, steamer, Alexandria.
LIVERPOOL, Wednesday Morning.

'Wind W.S.W.
Arrived, Apia 20—Cultivator, from New York; Fal-
mouth, Baltimore; Sylva, Charleston; Artisan, Savannah;
I)6rweilt, Antigua ; Rita, screw steamer, Baas ;
Lisbon.
Arrived, April 21- -Crusader, from Paraiba.
Sailed, April 20 —Fanney Teimes, for Rio Grande;
Commodore, Riga: Leerier Augustine, Naiva ; Elbe,
Mitamichi ; Robert Hastie, Halifax.

- (BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, 'Wednesday, 90.30 a.m.
Calm ; tide three hours' ebb ; fine.
Arrived, 20th—Charles, from Jamaica.
Arrived, 21st—La Hogue, from Sydney.
Bailed —Vasta, stdamer, for Oporto.
DEAL, Wednesday Morning.

Wind calm.
Passed—Lady Jocelyn, screw steamer, from Bombay ;
Bee Hut, Batavia • Prima Donna, schooner, Africa—ail
for London ; Flora, Ismail, for Bremen ; Conciliator,
Constantinople, Hull; Dawsons, India, Yarmouth.
Anchored—French frigate and French brig Agile, frcm
the westward.

'The direct and general elections for the members
ofitLe Second Chamber of the kingdom of Den-
mhrk, which expires this year, will take place on
the 14th of June.