The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-10 00:00:00

TIIE KING OF PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, Aug. 10.
'rho King will shortly pass through Frankfort.
on-the-Maine for Cassel, where his Majesty will
remain two days. The deputations from places re-
questing a Royal visit have been positively in-
formed that after leaving Cassel the King will pro-
bably return to the Castle of Babelsberg.

THE BOMBAY MAIL.

SOUTHAMPTON, August 10.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steam-
ship Ceylon, Captain Coleman, with the heavy
portion of the above mails, 50 passengers, specie
£3,683, and a general cargo, including 2,490 sacks
of wheat, has arrived. August Ist, off Malta, she
passed a barque with three topm.asts gone, steering
into Malta. August 2d, in latitude 34.10 long.
8.43 E. passed a British schooner standing to S.E.,
showing signal 11.P.5.R. (new code). August 6th,
off Cape Roca, exchanged colours v,lth an American
ironclad, steering to S.W., and passed a schooner
standing to southward. August 7, about 70 to the
southward, off Cape Finistcrre, the Peninsular and
Oriental steam ship Euxine, bound out.
GIBRALTAR, Aug. 5.

The Chronicle of the 2d says—
"We learn from Tangier that the Moorish
Minister, yesterday, communicated to the Foreign
Representatives the Sultan's decision that the ex-
pprtation of grain from Morocco, recently pro-
hibited, is now to be permitted for six months
longer, counting from 10th July.
The new Bashaw of Tetuan has arrived there
with about 300 troops. IFs presence, and the ex-
hibition of force to support the authority of his
office, were both much needed. The assassinations
at the very gates of Tetuan had inspired such terror
that the Jews dared not stir beyond the wails, and
were kept close prisoners in the town. Since tho
arrival of the new Governor they have taken heart
of grace, and go about their business as, usual. A
new Governor has also been appointed to the Riff,
who has promised to restore law and order, which in
that district aro too often at a discount.
Recently a Spanish fishing cutter, the Dos Hermann,
was attacked on the Riff Coast by a launch filled
with armed Moors, and plundered of the little
money the crew possessed, about $25, 200 weight
of biscuits, all their fishing tackle, guns, and ammu-
nition, and the cutter's boat. The crew arrived,
half-starved, at the Spanish settlement of Penon de
la Gomera, where they were provided with rations
by the Governor of the fort.
The Austrian frigate Novara arrived here on the
28th on her way to Mexico.
The following British ships have arrived here :
Integrity and Helen, from Cardiff; Marathon, from
Liverpool; Latona, from Cardiff ; Villanova, from
Glasgow; Champion, from Llanelly ; Amazon and
Peninsula, from London; Forest Queen, from
Newport; Sunderland, from Sunderland; Tanjore,
from Southampton ; Negociator, from Newport ;
Mersey, from Swansea; and Loudon, from London.

OF WORKS.

The ordinary weekly meeting of the Metropolitan
Board of Works was held yesterday, at the offices,
Spring-gardens. Sir John Thwaites, the chairman
of the Board, presided. There was not a numerous
attendance of members.

The Finance Committee presented the usual
weekly cash statement, of which the following are
some of the items :—ln the London and Westminster
Bank, general account, £143,403 19s. 11d. ; Main
Drainage Rate collection, £1,050 16s. 9d. ; Fire
Brigade, £4,339 12s. 3d. In the Bank of England
—Metropolitan Main Drainage, £16,074 15s. 3d ;
Thames Embankment, North, £34,801 Is. 3d. ;
Southern Embankment, £46,688 17s. Bd. Total,
£465,312 Ils. 11d.

The Chairman proceeded to open tenders for the
formation of an embankment and roadways in con-
nection with the Main Drainage works near Plais-
tow, West Ham. The two lowest were Mr. Winiam
Webster, £3,330 ; and Mr. Thackeray, £3,300.
After a few words from Mr. Legg, Mr. Roche
moved that Mr. Thackeray's tender for £3,300 be
accepted, which was seconded and agreed to. The
Finance Committee recommended that the several
sums named in the statement, amounting in the
whole to 136,062 Bs. 2d., be paid, which was ap-
proved. The Works and General Purposes Com-
mittee brought up a report, which stated that they
had considered the subject of the inundation of the
houses in Meadow-row, St. Andrew's-road, and the
neighbourhood on the 26th of July, and have
directed the engineer to report to the Board on the
subject generally. The report wag approved of.

THE RECENT EXTRAORDINARY RAINFALL.
Mr. J. W. BAZALGETTE, the chief engineer,
brought up a report which he had prepared at great
trouble in reference to the heavy fall of rain on
Friday, July 26. The report, which was read by
Mr. Bazalgette, was as follows :
" Metropolitan Board of Works, Engineer's De-
partment, Spring-gardens, Aug. 9, 1867.
" A fall of rain such as has not been recorded in
London for the last 20 years, and stated in the Re-
gistrar-General's return of July 27 to have been
unprecedented at the Greenwich Observatory, fell
between midnight on the 25th of July and 9 o'clock
on the following morning. During these nine hours
3; inches of rain fell ; not like a thunderstorm,
confined to a portion of the metropolis only, but a
uniform downfall extending over the whole of the
metropolitan area and the surrounding country.
Thus one-eighth of the average rainfall of a whole
year fell in nine hours, or nearly one-thousandth
part of a year ; ono quarter of the year's rain hav-
ing fallen during the month of July. In preparing
the scheme for the main drainage of the metropolis,
it was anticipated that the low level districts of
London would be very considerably relieved of the
flooding which had pre% iously produced such dis-
astrous destruction of property during heavy rains;
and those expectations have been fully realised. It
was not contemplated by the intercepting sewers to
carry off all the flood waters produced by extraor-
dinary rainfalls. The report of the eminent engi-
neers who have considered this subject, and my
own, commencing in 1854, are numerous and very
explicit on this subject. They propose in addition
to the sewage to carry off by the intercepting
sewers a quarter of an inch of rain in 24 hours.
They give an average of the number of days
per annum upon which such rainfalls have oc-
curred, and explain the manner in which it is
proposed to deal with exceptional rain storms, and
how impossible it would be, by works of reasonable
magnitude and cost, to carry off and pump through
the intercepting system such exceptional storms as
fell on the night of July 25, and which, within nine
hours, deluged London with 26,000,000 tons of
water. Such a rainfall may not Within the present
generation again occur. In spite of the relief afforded
by the new intercepting sewers and the provisions
made for the escape of storm waters, there were on
July 25 some exceptional instances of the flooding
of property in the low level districts on the south
side of the Thames. The houses of thu lower portions
of the south side are built within a basin, the rim of
which is the river Thames ; and at high water the
river is Eft. or 7ft. higher than the streets and 12ft.
higher than the basements of the houses; therefore
no water can run by gravitation out of their sewers
until the tide has fallen. The pumps and intercept-
ing sewers relieve these districts by the constant re-
moval of so much rain as they were designed to
cans off. The surplus can escape into the river
through the storm outlets only when the tide is low.
On July 26 the tide was rising as the storm fell, and
the accumulated reservoir space of the district sewers
not being sufficient to store the surplus water of
that extraordinary rainful until they could get re-
lief the flood rose above the level of some of the
lowest basements. The protection of the low level
districts against such casualties rests to a large ex-
tent in the hands of the local authorities, and it is
their duty to provide-1. That new houses shall not
be allowed to have basements so much below the level
of the river that they cannot be properly drained.
2. That the private drains of all such houses as have
low basements shall be protected by flood valves. 3.
That all sewers to be constructed in such localities
shall be of sufficient capacity to store the flood waters
during the time the tide is above their outlets.
A large proportion of the houses in Battersea and
other localities, with respect to which complaint is
now made that they were flooded on July 26, have
been built since the level., of the main drainage sewers
were determined upon or commenced, at so low a
level that they cannot be properly drained, nor have
any precautions been taken in forming their drains
to protect their basements against floods. Several
properties have also been flooded by defects in their
own drains or by other local causes having no refe-
rence to the general system of drainage. There are
about 80 miles of new intercepting sewers, and up-
wards of 2,000 miles of local or branch sewers, and
it is to these branch sewers, therefore, that we must
look for the storage of about nineteen-twentieths
of the waters of extraordinary floods during the
period of high tide. Now these sewers have not
keen formed upon a complete and comprehensive
plan, but they have been the growth of ages, con-
structed from time to time to meet local wants, and
many of them are still very defective. They are
continually being added to, improved, and deepened
by the Metropolitan Board, the Vestries, and the dis-
trict Boards, and, in proportion as these improve-
ments progress, so will the probabilities of the
flooding of the low-level districts decrease. It can-
not, however, be too forcibly urged that there is a
limit to the depth to which it is possible within a
reasonable cost to drain, and this limit has, in many
instances, been exceeded. The intercepting sowers
have more than answered the original expectations
with respect to them ; their soundness and efficiency
can scarcely again be more severely tested than on
the 26th of July last. The pumps were that day
lifting a volume of water equal to nearly half an
inch of rain over the whole of the low-level area,
nearly double the quantity they were intended to
lift, without even such partial failure or accident as
might in a work of such magnitude, and under so
severe a test, have been fairly expected. I submit
herewith several claims for compensation and other
communications with respect to the flooding of pro-
perty by the rain storm of the 26th of July, and I
recommend that the report be printed, and a copy
thereof sent in reply to each of the communications
on the subject, and that the claimants for compen-
sation be informed that this board denies its liability
to make compensation.
" F. W. BAZALGETTE, Engineer."
On the question of how to dispose of the rainfall,
Mr. Bazalgette stated that it was a question of con-
siderable difficulty, and had given rise to mach diver-
sity of opinion. That arose from the fact that, while
it was in itself harmless and even advantageous to
the river, it sometimes fell suddenly in large
quantities. These considerations had induced theo-
rists to advocate that the rainfall should not be
allowed to flow with the sewage, but should be dealt
with by a separatesystem ofosuelwdeirnsv.
ollvheisandeotuhboluegshett
most impracticable, as it w
of drains to every house, and the construction and
maintenance of second series of sewers to every street.
Applied to London it would involve the re-draining
of every house and every street in the metropolis,
and according to a moderate estimate it would lead
to an expenditure of from 10 to 12 millions of money,

.~~

while the interference with private property alone
would render such a proposition intolerable. In 1858
a report was submitted by Mr. Bidder, Mr. Hawks-
ley, and himself,which stated that their observations
distinctly established the fact that the quantity of
rain which flowed off by the sewers was in all cases
much less than the quantity which fell on the
ground ; and although the variations of atmospheric
phenomena are far too great to allow any philoso-
phical proportions to be established between the
rainfall and sewer flow, yet t'iey felt warranted in
saying that, as a rulo of averages, a quarter of an
inch of rainfall would not contribute more than one
eighth of an inch to the severs, nor a fall of four-
tenths of an inch more than a quarter of an inch.
If the sewers were capable of carrying off a volume
equal to a rainfall of a quarter of an inch per day
during the six hours of a maximum flow, there
would not be more than 12 days in a year in which
the sewers would be overcharged, and then only for
short periods during such days. Mr. Bazalgotte
having gone at great length into this question,
The CHAIRMAN said the only thing they could do
would be to see that the houses were properly drained.
Mr. BAZALGRTTE said houses built below the level
of low water could not be expected to be drained.
Mr. LEGG moved that the engineer's report be
printed and circulated, and that a copy be sent to
each claimant for compensation, and when the ques-
tion was well ventilated it would be found in what
quarter the blame lay.
Mr. FREEMAN thought that after what had taken
place, the engineer ought in future very carefully to
consider the subject, with a view to prevent a recur-
rence of such an accident.
Mr. PHILLIPS said if he did he hoped he would
not take the 26th of July as the basis for his calcu-
lation, as what occurred upon that day might not
L take place again for 20 years to come.
' After a few words from Mr. SISAW, the motion
that the engineer's report be printed and circulated
• was agreed to.