The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-06 00:00:00

THE WES.

PU,RIFICATION OF THE SERPENTINE.

The select committee appointed by the House of
Commons to consider the best means of purifying
the Serpentine, met yesterday; the Right Hon. W.
Cowper in the chair. The other members of the
committee present were Lord S. Manners, Sir J.
Paxton, Lord Fermoy, Mr. Beach, Sir J. Shelley,
Sir F. Smith, Sir S. M. Peto, Mr. Joseph Locke,
Captain Archdall, Mr. A. Egerton, and Sir M. W.
Ridley.
Mr. Hawksley, C.E., was the first witness ex-
amined—He said he had prepared a report upon
the state of the Serpentine by the desire of Mr.
Fitzroy, the late Commissioner of Works, which
had been presented to the House of Commons. He
thought the question of preventing danger to
bathers and skaters might be treated independently
of the plan for purifying the water. He believed
that the water now stagnant in the Serpentine was
as chemically pure when filtered as the water de-
livered by the water companies, and all he proposed
in the plan he had submitted to the Government
was to remove the organic matter not held in solu-
tion. The vegetable matter would not be exposed
to the air at all, but would run direct through a
culvert. He proposed to employ washed sand as
the medium of filtration, and the amount of labour
that would be involved in keeping the water puri-
fied would be very small. The filtration would re-
move all objects held in suspension in the water,
and would hare a slight effect upon articles held in
solution. if his plan were carried out 2,000,000
I gallons per diem, or 1,400 per minute, would pass
• through the filter beds; besides-the supply to the
jets connected with two fountains. The vegetable
matter was found near the surface, and was con.-

tinually rising to the surface, especially in hot
weather, so that a conduit placed near the surface
would have no difficulty in carrying it off. An
engine would be employed in drawing the water
to the conduit, and the conduit, which would be 30
inches in diameter, would be constantly full. The
abstraction of 2,000,000 gallons of water daily
would not produce any perceptible current, though
the lake would hardly be a stagnant lake.
By Lord Fermoy—When the matter was brought
before me by Mr. Fitzroy I instituted inquiries. If
I had found that the mud at the bottom was under-
going decomposition I should have recommended
some other more expensive steps, but it was not so.
I found that the quantity of mud in the Serpentine
was nearly 200,000 cubic yards. In some places it
was eight feet deep, with a depth of not more than
eight feet of water above it.
Lard Fermoy—Are you not of opinion that such
an extent of mud must be necessarily injurious to
the purity of the water ?
Mr. llawksley—lt certainly produces no percep-
tible injury. My filters provide for the passing of
2,000,000 gallon per diem ; but the water, after
having passed through the filter, would of course
be liable to become impure again. My object is to
provide that during the hot weather the wh'le of
the water in the Serpentine shall be practically
removed once a month, At present the Serpen-
tine contains little more than 60 million gallons of
water.

Lord Fermoy—At the end of the month, when
you would have passed the whole 66 million gallons
through your filter bed, you would not have got a
pure bed.
Mr. Hawksley—Certainly not, and you never
would be able to get a pure lake. If you pass 60
million gallons of water through a regular stream,
and allow it to take a month in running down, the
water would become slightly tinged though not
absolutely foul. The Serpentine was formed in the
reign of William and Mary, by blocking up the
lower end of the stream where it issues from the
park, and closing in a natural valley by means of
an embankment. As a matter of course a great
deal of vegetable matter came down the brook, and
until the last few years deposits have been going
on. The lake has never been completely emptied,
and after houses were constructed round the park
a large amount of filtration from water closets
found its way into the lake, making considerable
deposits. The total expense fif keeping the water
cleansed under my plan would be something under
£3OO a year. Last summer my attention was called
to the water in St. James's-park, And I found it in
a frightful condition, particularly in July, August,
and September. I do not think it requisite that
the water in the Serpentine should be made more
shallow ; on the contrary, ',it would be better if it
were 10 times as deep.
By Sir J. Paxton—l believe there is no special
right on the part of the public as to bathing. I
think the public should be allowed to bathe above
bridge, and that that part should be made suitable
for the purpose and planted round, leaving the rest
of the lake untouched.
By Lord J. Manners—The mud stirred up by
the bathers produces no improper effect upon the
water.
By Mr. Locke—The water in the Serpentine, if
any process of filtration be adopted, will be much
purer than that in St. James's-park. I propose to
carry a culvert, 2 feet 6 inches in diameter, along
the whole ler.gth of the Serpentine, giving it a fall
at the.upper end, which would make it terminate
in a well, that culvert would always be full. As
fast as the water was pumped out of it it would be
replaced.
The committee then adjourned.

SAVOY AND NICE.

(From the Times.)

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There is no doubt whatever what the sentimen
of all England is as to the French project of an
nexation. We all think it very wrong, very un•
generous—at once a crime and a blunder. We al,
agree with Lord Sohn Russell in the strong pro-
test he has made against this act of Imperial greed.
But does the House of Commons, or does any grec
party aspiring to direct the voice of the House o.
Commons, wish to go further than this ? If there
be such a party, there are two courses open to it.
The first and the more manly course is to reject
the commercial treaty, and to address her Majesty
to resist, at all hazards, any infraction of the
treaties by which the territorial limits of France
are settled, promising to stand by her Majesty in
such resistance with their lives and fortunes, and
voting a credit of fifty millions on account.. Is any
English party prepared for this ? Is Mr. Fitz-
gerald prepared to go to his constituents upon it?
Does any one of those loud-voiced gentlemen who
were casting such brave defiances across the Chan-
nel last night affect to doubt that the people of Eng-
', land would send a Minister to Bedlam who should
seek a war with France about these wretched moun
fain tops ? Well, there is one other course. Let
the Opposition declare a sort of guerilla warfare
against this treaty and this annexation. Let them
set on their smaller notables to make furious on-
slaughts against the Emperor, and let them choose
the moment when he shows the most friendly de-
sire to make the treaty palatable to us. Depend
upon it he will soon reciprocate their rough courte-
sies. First, he will slacken the rein of his provincial
press—we hear sounds that induce us to believe
that this preliminary is already taken. Then the
mouths of the Parisian Cerberus will be unmuzzled.
What that will bring forth has been too recently
felt to require to be drawn out in long detail. In
of war. From that to drift down intotoisaniopdflaeihe
a few weeks all hopeswofemshaaklirbgeainnyathminograolfsttahties
tite
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aaar It-
treaty will be gone.
state of war is but
istiziaga
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nit
clic, oe umerosrne.
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cinognsfurmommalvterdr.w;
they never intended it, atuffrom Mr. D'
he had taken care himself to say nothing offensive,-
be
aPoll
Of two things, one—either England intends to go
to war about this Savoy question, or she does not.
England to-morrow,
hundred votes for such a
andWe telleshweoudledesnontot
war. But, if she does not, all that she can in
honour and in dignity do is t
silent. If Napoleon 111. will o protest and be
hlisten to the coun-
sels of a friendly nation, which
will abandon this annexation schemeN°V;ialbi
in all honour and
sincerity would advise him lte
to his own glory, he
not do so he must
go his own path. He has nothing
to dread from us. The scolds who throw cola words
after him and vent empty threats against him re-
present no power in this land. As an honest people
we regret and protest ;but
our temper or our dignity to rail and revile.
5,

MDDLE. PICOLOMINI.—The- Irish papers deny
that Mdlle. Pkeolornini has been united in the holy bonds
of matrimony since her arrival in Dublin.
ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.—The benefit of
Mr. W. Barnett, treasurer and stage manager, is fixed for
the 13th inst.

THE GALES.—Monday and Tuesday will long be
remembered for the violent gales which passed over a great
part of the country. On Tuesday, particularly, the vio-
lence of the gale, between ono and two o'clock in the after-
noon, was such as has rarely been equalled. In one domain
(Thoresby), in a neighbouring county, upwards of 2.000
trees were blown down. Immense :mischief has been dune
throughout England.—Derbyshire Courier.
THE NEW DUTCH MINISTRY. According to
advices from the Hacrue, the new Dutch Ministry is com-
posed as follows :—Baron van Hall, Finances and Foreign
Affairs ad interim ; Godefroi, Justice ; van Heeuntra, In.
terior ; Mutsaers, Roman Catholic Affairs; Rochuseen,
Colonies; Lotsy, Marine; and Casembroot, War.
The steamer Hungarian, the total loss of which
was announced yesterday, belonged to the Mcntreal mail
line trading between. Liverpool and Portland in the winter
and Liverpool end Canada in the summer. She had a full
cargo of Manchester goods, which are insured at Lloyd's
to the amount of about £150,000, besides the vessel herself
for about £lO,OOO. The Indian, wrecked a few months
back, also belonged to the Montreal line,