The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 23, 1859.

TILE SERPENTINE.

ITS HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE.

The ornamental water in Kensington-gardens
and Hyde-park, for the improvement of which the
House of Commons has just voted the sum of
£16,500, has existed for about 140 years. In the
time of King William 111. the valley now occupied
by the Serpentine was channelled by the windings
of a brook called the West Bourne, interrupted at
intervals by marsh grounds, ponds, and gravel pits.
In the reign: of George I. these ponds were united
by excavation, and the lake was formed by the con-
struction of a weir across the rivulet near Knights-
bridge. At- first, and for many years afterwards,
the Serpentine derived a constant and abundant
supply of limpid water from the rivulet, originating
at a point where it is not now possible to determine
accurately, not far from the Royal Oak, by the
union of seveaal streams, taking their rise in the
Hampstead and Highgate hills. Thence it pursued
a devious course along the Bayswater valley to the
Bayswater Tavern, then a lonely resort of high-
waymen. Not only is all trace lost of the channel
of the rivulet, its waters being now conveyed by
the Ranelagh sewer, but the valley itself is oblite-
rated by successive artificial deposits, the ground
being raised to a continuous level and covered with
streets and squares. About 30 years ago the first
streets were built in this now populous neighbour-
hood.. As street followed street, and threw its drain-
age into the brook, it gradually changed its charac-
ter, and from being a trout stream it became an
open sewer. In a few years the Serpentine, which
was fed from it, was contaminated to such an ex-
tent that in 1834 an act was passed (4 and 5 Will.
IV., 96) empowering the Commissioners of Sewers
to construct across the brook, at the point at which
it passes under the Uxbridge-road, a weir of the
height of two feet, and to carry off its intercepted
waters into the sewer which crosses Hyde-park from
the foot of Albion-street in a direction parallel with
the Serpentine. The result of these works was to
divert from the Serpentine the greater part of the
drainage and soil passing down the brook; but when-
ever the water roseabove the level of the top of theweir
(which was very frequently the case), it of course
continued to flow into the lake. In 1836 the quan-
tity of mud at the upper end had so much increased
it was judged necessary to construct a coffer dam
near the bridge to pump out the water and cleanse
the channel. This work was effected and the whole
of the mud cleared rway at a cost of about £3,000,
but no further measures were taken for excluding
the sewage. Nothing more appears to have been
done until, in 1848, the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests, in consequence of the general com-
plaints which then arose, instructed Sir J. Rennie
to investigate the condition of the lake, and to re-
port on the best means of improving and maintain-
ing it in a wholesome state. He reportedthat there
was in the lake a deposit of from 1 to 6 feet of of-
fensive mud, the existence of which he attributed
entirely to the polluting influence of the Bayswater
stream, and the scanty supply of fresh water. He
recommended— _ _ _

1. That the sewage should be effectually ex-
cluded, and
2. That the foul rand should be removed, the
surface of the channel regulated, the pits filled up,
and that gravel should be strewed along the mar-
gin for some distance.

He contemplated that a sufficient supply of water
should be obtained either from the water companies
or by making reservoirs at the sources of the Brent
or the Verulam. None of these improvements were
carried into operation, and the subject appears
again to have dropped until the appointment of
ford Llanover to the office of First CommissioAer
of her Majesty's Works. In accordance with the
indications of Sir J. Rennie, he directed an estimate
to be prepared for the thorough cleansing of the
lake in St. James's-park and the Serpentine. In
this estimate it was proposed that the mud should
not be removed, but that after being properly
drained, it should be used to regulate the channel,
and finally, that the whole should be coated with
concrete to the depth of from 9to 12 inches. The
expense of effecting this improvement was to be
£45,000 for the Serpentine and £ll,OOO for the lake
in St. James's-park. As every one knows, this pro-
posal was carried into effect with perfect success in
the latter, in the winter of 1856-57, the required sum
being provided by the Treasury in anticipation of
the vote taken in the ensuing session of Parliament.
With the exception that in the year 1849 an al-
teration was made in the weir at the head of the
Serpentine of such a nature as to divert a still
larger proportion of the contents of the Ranelagh
sewer from the lake, but not to prevent frequent
overflows, nothing whatever was done from 1836
until last winter. The rapid extension of the area
covered by buildings having led to a corresponding
increase of the quantity of water draining into the
Ranelagh, the diversion sewer constructed in 1834
became wholly insufficient for its purpose. It was
therefore resolved by the Metropolitan Board, at the
instance of Mr. Burslem, the representative for the
district of Paddington, to construct a new sewer

along the Uxbridge-road, in a direction parallel to
that already existing, and of sufficient size to con-
vey the whole contents of the Itanelagh to the sewer
already referred to as crossing the park from the
foot of Albion-street. The communication between
the sewer and the:Serpentine still, however, remains
open, and in case of an extraordinary fall of rain,
sewer water in an extremely diluted state may still
enter the lake. It cannot be supposed that this very
slight contamination is sufficient to produce any ap-
preciable effect on the water; so that practically the
first point insisted upon by Sir J. Rennie has been
accomplished. The entire immunity of the Serpen-
tine is one of the many good things which we are
led to expect from the completion of the main drain-
age scheme.
What is the present state of the Serpentine? Ac-
cording to Mr. Hawksley, " its water is essentially
clear, sweet, and inodorous. . . . It is nevertheless,
to some extent, loaded with confervoidal and other
forms of vegetation of a very-primary and harmless
character." What could be more satisfactory ?
"Neither sensibly nor chemically is there much that
is wrong in the greatly-abused water of the Serpen-
tine." Truly, if the only evil we have to contend with
consists in the presence of those microscopic proto-
phytes, whose influence is ratherto purify than con-
taminate the water in which they exist, we scarcely
need a steam-engine and a filtering-bed three-quar-
ters of an acre in extent, costing £16,500 down and
£3OO annually, to remedy it But the pubic is
toa strongly convinced of the unwholesomeness of
the present state of the Sepentine to be put off by
any such quibbling. From the observation of many
years—observiition for which no science is required
—the foul smell of the lake has become so familiar

to the frequenters of Kensington Gard2ns of all
classes, that neither Mr. Hawksley nor all the
scientific evideace in the country would convince
them to the contrary, and they are not likely to
place much confidence in a remedy the whole re-
commendation of which is based on the denial of the
very existence of the evil to be remedied.
It may be freely admitted that the water itself
contains little that is likely to be injurious to health.
The minute vegetables to which, as Mr. Hawksley
truly says, the present turbidity of the Serpentine
is mainly owing, have frequently been much more
numerous than at present, and it is probable the re-
cent introduction of lime, by destroying the crus-
taceans which feed upon, will prtduce a similar in-
crease as the season advances, and that the lake
will again assume the emerald green colour which
was so intense last September. Even in its pre-
sent condition the water of the Serpentine will
not bear comparison with that of the lake in
St. James's-park. While the latter is bright
and clear, and has a sufficient staff of nature's
scavengers (water fleas and Cyclopes) to prevent
the too great multiplication of miscroscopic orga-
nisms, the former is muddy, its scavengers have
been limed to death by order of Government, and
it is impregnated with ammonia in such quantity
as to communicate to it what the chemists call an
alkaline reaction. This condition is a mere conse-
qnence
aoZktshieeputrescence of the mud at the bottom.
Mr•
deposit at thit indeed, tells us—" That the vast
not affect the enl black and deep as it is, does
condition of the supernatant water."
Common sense leads to a contrary conclusion ;
and we shall endeavourus to show that this may be
supported by the careful analysis of facts.
It is characteristic of mud
which consists of or-
ganic debris that it gives off from
propo surfaceirtstionso f wghaiscehs
of several kinds, the relative
this process
differ according to the nature of the
organic matter
and the stage of its decomposition. If
goes on actively the mud itself becomes inflated
the interstitial development of gas, exactly b-
in the
same manner that dough does in the process of fer.
mentation. It is thus rendered buoyant, and rises
in fragments which float about on the surface.
Every one has heard of the floating island on Der-
went water, which consists of a mass of mud inflated
with bubbles in precisely the same
manner—the im-
portant difference being that in that instance the
gas is not mephitic, resulting merely from the de-
composition of vegetab'e matters, not from sewage,
as in the Serpentine. The quantity of this floating
mud varies extremely, according to the temperature
and direction of the wind. We have observed it in
such quantity as to form a yeast-like scum, extend-
ing over an area of 2,000 square yards. This we
believe to be the real source of the offensive emana-
tions. The products of the decomposition of the
mud, which, if exposed directly to the action of the
water, would be oxidised and converted into com-
paratively inoffensive products (ammonia and car-
bonic acid), is protected and carried up to the sur-
face by the mechanism we have endeavoured to
describe, and there becomes diffused in the at-
mosphere.
If this be the real explanation of the matter—

and that it is so we think will appear to every one '
who has watched the Serpentine for the last few
Sears—of what possible use Can it be to filter the
water, to improve the supply, or, in short, to do any-
thing whatever except the one thing required—to
protect the water from the influence of
the mud,
either by removing the latter or by_ coating it with
concrete, according to the practical proposal of Lord
Llanover
But there is another ground of complaint of still
greater importance, and one which more urgently
demands redress. To the masses, who inhabit the
crowded streets of the metropolis the opportunity of
bathing free of expense is of incalculable value. Not
only is the practice in the highest degree conducive
to physical health, but it tends to foster those moral
qualities the growth and development of which in
the lower classes are most apt to be checked by town
life. The exercise of swimming, so invigorating to
mind and, body, the previous effort which is required
to obtain mastery over a new element, the emula-
tion which is
i called into play—all these are invalu-
able agents n promoting among the poor that love
of out-door exertion, of successful struggle with
the powers of nature, which in this country so
markedly distinguish the educated from the vulgar.
During the summer months thousands of children
assemble, for the purpose of bathing, on the banks
of the Serpentine; and, in spite of the efforts of the
Humane Society, many fall victims to the dange-
rous 'condition of its channel. If unable to swim,
the bather, when wading into they water, suddenly
slips into.a gravel-pit filled with semi-fluid slime,
which half chokes half poisons him ; while the ex-
pert swimmer, as we are assured on the best autho-
rity, should he be so unlucky as to be seized with
cramp, " becomes entangled in the slimy matter,
which so completely fills the mouth, nose, and ears
as to render in many instances resuscitation impos-
sible; and in those cases where animation is re-
stored, the constitution of the rescued person re-
ceives a shock from which it never recovers."
The House of Commons the other night accepted
almost without question, and sanctioned by a ma-
rity of 97 to 12, the scheme of a projector who hav-
ing two ills to cure avowedly leaves the worst un.
touched—actually does nothing for the other ; and,
as a placebo, proposes a remedy directed against a
mere mock disease, an insignficant consequence of
the real evil. No explanation of this result is to
be found in the speeches delivered on the three oc-
casions on which the project was discussed, for the
only arguments adduced in its favour involved the
assumption that the condition of the Serpentine
was not unwholesome. It is not, however, difficult
to account for the vote. The scheme was wholly
unprecedented; not only were members unacquainted
with its details, but they were not provided with
the usual means of obtaining the required informa-
tion ; they were consequently totally unable to
judge for themselves of its real merits. On the
other hand, it was recommended with great confi-
dence, and on the highest engineering authority.
The session was drawing to a close, the necessity
of doing something appeared urgent ; and there-
fore the plan was accepted in failure of a bet-
ter. Popular opinion has since been so
plainly and so strongly expressed that Mr.
Fitzroy need not consider himself pledged to a mea-
sure which, whatever else it may do, will not satisfy
the public. We do not doubt that, as a method of
filtration, Mr. Hawksley's is the very best that
could be adopted, and that in an engineering point
of view it deserves all the commendation given to
it in the House of Commons by Sir R. Stephenson;
but we maintain that no process of this nature can
possibly answer the purpose, on the simple ground
that it is not the turbidity of the water that is com-
plained of, but the offensive character of the mud.
The two questions of water supply and of expen-
diture which have assumed so much prominence in
the recent discussion, do not, after all, materially
affect the main point at issue. In the estimate laid
before the House of Commons in 1857, by Lord
Llanover it was proposed to accomplish the cleansing
of the Serpentine for £45,000. Messrs. Easton and
Amos now guarantee that it shall be done for
£50,000. If it were a question between two
plans, one cheaper than the other but not so good,
it would of course be necessary to balance the in-
feriority of result against the excess of expendi-
ture, and to decide accordingly; but between a plan
of tried efficiency and one not in any degree adapted
to the objects in view no such comparison is pos-
sible.

So also as regards the supply of water. Even
with the present supply of 56,000,QQ0 of gallons
annually derived from the Chelsea Waterworks
Company and the surrounding surface drainage,
the execution of the works proposed by Lord Llan-
over would produce a perfectly satisfactory result.
The expediency of any addition to this supply
would be a question for subsequent determination.
The present expenditure for water is, we believe,
about £6OO annually, and the quantity supplied
amounts to 153,000 gallons daily. Messrs. Easton,
Amos, and Sons engage to supply nearly seven times
as much, viz., 1,000,000 gallons daily from the well
in Duck Island at the annual cot of £7OO, or
2,000,000 during the summer months, if necessary,
for an additional sum of 40s. per day. It is true
that the water-bearing capabilities of the gravel
bed from which these gentlemen propose to obtain
this supply are disputed by high engineering autho-
rities.. The question is one which can only be de-
termined by experiment, and both parties to the
discussion are pledged to allow the decision to rest
on this issue. -

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—On. the case of the Serpentine much allow-
ance may be claimed for Mr. Fitzroy, the new Coth-
missioner of Works, for his unavoidably sudden
determination, immediately on his accession to
office, when he must have acted upon trust, upon
advice, and upon what he might, from being unin-
formed on the specialities of the case, naturally
deem competent authority. But, if you will per-
mit me, I would submit to him whether he may not
be properly asked to reconsider the question on a
point which appears to me to be of primary impor-
tance, and yet not duly considered—namely, whe-
ther the prevention of the continued danger to
thousands and the annual sacrifice of many lives in
the Serpentine shall not be made an indispensable
condition, as well as the purification of its water, of
any plan on which the public money is expended
for its improvement. Sir Morton Peto says :

" I reside near the Serpentine, and have a business es.
tablishment near St. James's-park. I have cultivated a
habit of observation, and am somewhat accustomed to the
consideration of public schemes of a practical char. icter. I
therefore hold myself to be entitled to express ray opinion
on these and other schemes submitted to the Government
either in the House of Commons or elsewhere."

I, ton, hold myself entitled, on similar grounds, to
express my opinions on such schemes, more especially
on the one in question, from having had, as a &raj-
tary Commissioner, to take evidence bearing upon it.
I, too, for years resided near the Serpentine, and for
years had to repass it, morning and evening, in sum-
mer and winter. On thoin occasions I could not but be
witness of the frequent action of the police of the
Humane Society—in summer for the protection of
bathers, in winter for the saving of skaters, and
their dragging fcr the bodies of boys and men
drowned, notwithstanding all the precautions,—at
night seeing the watch kept upon solitary women
or others wandering near the remoter spots, and
by their motions apparently meditating suicide.
Nor was it otherwise than painful to regard con-
stantly, as part of the ornamental water, the dead-
house, with its apparatus for the treatment of the
subjects rescued from preventible dangers, and the
reception of the dead got out of the deep pools.
Though the Serpentine is to be considered as a
promenade for the higher classes during the middle
of the day, I submit that, for the early morning
and the evening in the summer time, it is to be re-
garded as a great and most important public swim-
ming bath, chiefly for boys, and in winter time as
a great public skating place. In this point of view
alone, as a matter of common humanity, I person-
ally urged, ten years ago, as a Metropolitan Said-
tary Commissioner, that the pools of water in St.
James's Park as well as in the Serpentine should
bo filled up to a height that would prevent the
continued sacrifice of life. I cannot but regard it
as a discreditable state of mind which, in dealing
with the question responsibly, disregards as of no
serious account in the question the terrors of many
thousands of mothers and heads of families at real
dangers to their children, as shown by the frequent
fatal accidents and by the need of the maintenance
of a special police for protection against them.
As far as I can remember, it then appeared that
the mere money score for the lives lost, and the
various expenses attendant on:the existing defec-
tive conditions of the place, could not be less
on the average than between £lOOO and £2OOO
per annum, -which, capitalized at 5 per cent.,
would, on that score alone, justify an outlay of
from
£30,000 to £40,000 for works of permanent
prevention ; and it then appeared also that the
works required for the saving of life were the
best for the purification of the water—inasmuch as
every cubic yard of material thrown into those
pools diminished thetr lake,
of water constantly
required to freshen
the or,sah
iitna
roy power t h ewords,ro
proportionately increaese d.
the limited
As
sp supply of fresh water available for the
purpose. it was as not intended to raise towers or
massive constructions on the bottom
one conceived it to he necessary to r
m of the lake,no
con-
siderable amount of the deposit there, and anyde
Ibelieve
that the contractors who have offered to accom-
plish the object of raising the bed
may per-
form the contract within the estimates. The
measure since successfully executed for raising the
bed of the St. James's Canal and purifyin—
g it has
one of my
been spoken of as measures, but it is just
to state that I believe it to have arisen on wholly
independent considerations, and that the results

have been obtained by meads which differ from
those in preparation as parts of a general system of
drainage when I acted as one of the Commissioners
of the Consolidated Sewers Commission. I now ven-
ture to aver that if Sir. Morton Pete, Mr. Stephen-
son, and other Commissioners of the same class who
succeeded on that commission had justified their
pretensions to deal with questions of town drainage
(and in respect to Mr. Stephenson I will add, if he
had justified. my own expectations from the princi-
ples which he adopted as one of the paid Commis-
sioners on the Health of Towns Commission),
neither the work in question, nor the work of the
interception of sewage from the Thames, nor other
large sanitary works, would for so many years have
remained to be done. They had before them speci-
mens of drains constructed specially for the work
of permeable land drainage, with reports settling
the principles for the drainage of all open spaces,
for the treatment of pools and of stagnant water, as
well as the water-bearing strata forming the sites
of habitations. But the course which they have
taken on this as on other connected matters shows
that there are fundamental principles belonging to
town drainage which they have yet to learn.
I beg to offer some justificatory explanations, as
bearing on the question under consideration. I
have, myself, in various reports, displayed the evi-
dence that in addition to the means for the removal
of foul or soil water containing the excreta usually
removed by drains from houses, complete town
drainage works comprehend the means for the re-
moval of surplus and stagnant water from the strata
forming the sites of houses and towns. It has been
shown over and over again that, the general condi-
tion of urban populations being similar as to house
drainage, the rate of mortality varies with the levels
on which the houses stand, or, in other words, with
the dampness of the subsoil as governed by those
levels. Thus in respect to London, on dividing the
two great districts, the highest and the lowest, in
reference to the Trinity high-water mark, in 1838,
the proportions of deaths from fever in the districts
of an average level of 54 feet was one to every 425
of the population, while in the lower districts, at
an average level of only 11 feet, the deaths were
nearly double, or lin 255. Or, on the occasion of
the last visitation of cholera, into three levels—the
lowest, the intermediate, and the highest—in the
lowest, averaging only four feet, the deaths were 1
in 93 of the population ; in the intermediate, aver-
aging 30 feet, the deaths were 1 in 256; in the
highest, averaging 63 feet, the deaths were only 1
in 346. On a more close examination of the lower
districts their condition as to the excess of damp
was not as might be expected. In the Supplement
to the Report on the Sanitary Condition of the
Populatioa of 1843 I cited, as respects Westminster,
the evidence -of Mr. Rose, the death registrar of the
district of St. John the Evangelist, who, being
asked to name the localities where fever cases were
the most numerous and describe their conditions,
names various districts and describes them particu-
larly as low in site—e.g. :
" Holland-street, Medway-street, Marlborough-place,
New Peter. street, with several other avenues surrounding
an extensive waste (formerly the site of Marlborough-
square), oftentimes nearly covered with stagnant water.
The houses are small, very dirty and dilapidated, low in
situation, without any drainage, having stagnant water
back and front."
The Second Report of the Health of Towns Com-
mission, signed by Mr. Stephenson, in the following
terms recognises similar conditions to be provided
for by appropriate drainage work :

" The evidence we have received, and the reports of the
Commissioners who have visited the several towns, are uni-
form in their representation of the lamentable condition in
which suburban districts, and sometimes even the more
crowded parts of large towns, are• generally found from the
presence of open ditches and stagnant water. Patches of
land which the gradual encroachments of buildings have
often rendered useless for the purpose of cultivation fre-
quently lie unoccupied and become receptacles for refuse of
the most offensive description. If the soil be of a retentive
nature, the evil is increased by the formation of stagnant
pools which constantly load the air with an excess of mois-
ture rendered most noxious from the effluvia arising from
the decbmposing animal and vegetable matter thrown into
them. . . The replies to the questions on this subject
are almost without exception of the same character. . .
Sometimes the pools are described as merely stagnant water
not receiving any drainage into them, but more frequently
they assume the form of open ditches and receive the con •
tents of the sewers and drains of the surrounding houses.
Evils of this kind are as frequent in the vicinity of the me-
tropolis its in any other part of the country."

As respects the metropolis, these gentlemen had
prepared for them, in the Second Report of the Me-
tropolitan Sanitary Commissioners, evidence more
fully developing the evils arising from stagnant
waters in open spaces; and among the Reports of
the Consolidated Sewers Commission itself they had
adelaborate exposition of the means of dealing
with them with profit to the owners of lands, with
profit, indeed, to the owners of houses by the sav-
ing of dilapidations. In that Commission they had
a very important petition from the Zoololgieal
Society, describing the evil results upon the health
of their animals, as well as to the vegetation in
their ornamental garden, arising from the
want of proper drainage of the heavy clay
land of the Regent's-park. They had also in
the office, prepared in 1848, a report on the drain-
age of Kensington-gardens and Hyde-park, which
involved the purification of the ornamental water.
A commencement had been made for intercepting
the discharge of house sewage into natural water-
courses as a general principle of works (vide p. 15
of Minutes on Suburban Land Drainage published
by the General Board of Health, 1852, for an example
of such interception), by the application of which
principle the discharge of house drainage into the
Westbourne and the chief natural feeder of the Ser-
pentine would have been intercepted. It may be
here stated, by the way, that by the application of
the same principle of interception which would have
followed to all the natural watercourses, tributaries
of the Thames, from the metropolitan area, which
have been improperly used as sowers for the dis-
charge of house drainage, much of the business of
interce .tion now agitated might have been accom-
plished, and the main intercepting lines along the
river completed of smaller size and at a reduced cost.
They had left with them plans for the completion
of the interception on nearly the same lines as those
now adopted, but of a lower maximum size, and
costing £1,000,000 instead of £3,000,000, which
might with due diligence have been completed 7 or
8 years ago. It was anticipated that by the prose-
cution of the measures then in preparation for the
needed permeable drainage of sites, and of the open
spaces in the uplands as well as the adjacent park
land, an abundant supply of comparatively fresh
Eltered and living water would be obtained, more
than sufficient to supply the reduced capacities of
both lakes, and probably to supply some fountains
t the lower levels.

But from the tenor of the declarations of Sir M.
Peto and Mr. Stephenson it now appears that they
ignore all the evidence of evil arising from stagnant.
waters and undrained open spaces near towns, and
also the evidence in relation to the surcharged water
bearing strata forming the sites of houses. Mr.
Hawksley, whom they support, states that the quan-
tity of water proposed to be obtained by pumping
from a well in Duck Island, "would be certain to
produce evils of no small magnitude in and around
St. James's-park."
This is just the sort of stuff which is precious for
a professional witness before committees of the
House of Commons, consisting of awful dicta autho-
ritatively enunciated, which members new to the
subject are incompetent to question, and, having no
time to investigate, are scared against incurring
the responsibility of rejecting. Sir Morton Peto
supports it by stating more particularly that it "is
quite impossible to obtain 2,500,000 gallons daily
from a well sunk in St. James's-park withont ex-
hausting the basin itself, and the peat and mud
beds on which many buildings depend for their
support." Engineers who have devoted themselves
specially to town drainage works, and who have
bet ter practical acquaintance with them than either
of these gentlemen can have obtained, treat theie
prognostications with ridicule. Driving deep tun-
nel sewers through loose strata such as that of the
Victoria-street sewer, which Sir Morton and Mr.
Stephenson approved, which was estimated to cost
under £15,000, but has now cost nearly £lOO,OOO,
is indeed attended with disastrous consequences ;
but if they were competently informed they would
be aware that by proper drainage works, lowering
the water bed evenly, no such injury is occasioned.
The last time I head of the progress of sanitary
works at Salisbury, it was stated that all the wells
of the city had been considerably lowered by them,
and yet the Minster still stands safe and sound. I
can only hope, for the sake of the poor inhabitants
of the low-lying damp houses, the fever nests of
Westminster, that the proposed additional pumping
in Duck Island will have the wide-spread effect
apprehended from it of lowering the water-bed of
the whole district. But it is important to protest
against this noxious drainage fallacy, so convenient
as the justification of ignorant and rapacious owners
of poor tenements, implying that houses are to be
kept waterlogged at their foundations from a fan-
cied danger to the superstructures. I should
be prepared to adduce from the evidence of Mr.
Hawksley as well as the declarations of Mr.
Stephenson on sanitary questions excepti.ns to the
positions they assume as authorities on such
subjects, and would challenge them to make good
their claims by reference to sanitary works
which they have devised—proved by reductions of
death-rates, such as have been accomplished by
works on principles which they have endeavoured
to controvert.

Looking at the vast amount of expenditure in
the metropolis on sewers of deposit, at double and
threefold the expense at which self-cleansing
sewers might have been provided, and other works,
of which the Victoria-street sewer is only an ex-
panded specimen, Lord Robert Grosvenor, Professor
Owen, and my other colleagues of the Metropolitan

f• Sanitary Commission could not but concur in the •
conclusion thus expressei in our first report on the
use ol the names of- eminent engineers by whom
those works had been approved :--6, Th 3 more the
investigation advances, the more is it apparent that
the progressive improvement and proper execution
of this class of public works, together with the ap-
pliances of hydraulic engineering, cannot reason-
ably be expected to be dealt with incidentally or
collaterally, to ordinary occupations or even to con-
nected professional pursuits, but require a degree
of special study which not only place them beyond
the sphere of the discussions of popular administra-
tive bodies, but beyond that of ordinary profes-
sional engineering and architectural practice. In
justification of this conclusion, and to show the evil
of the perverted application of high general pro-
fessional authority, we might adduce examples of
the most defective works which have received their
sanction."
On the occasion of the prosecution of the metro-
politan drainage works being confided to a second
consolidated commission, of which Mr. Robert
Stephenson was a leading member, Sir John Bur-
goyne, who was one of them, and usually acted as
chairman, wrote to me to request that I would at-
tend and expound to them the conclusions derived
from the inquiries to which I have referred. But
I was then engaged some 14 hems a-day in the
preparations against an impending epidemic visi-
tation, and found it impoisible to do so. And, al-
though I was aware from evidence as to the rude
empirical way in which the drainage works in con-
nexion with railways had been executed by a class
of engineers who had probably never been called on
to drain a house or a street, much less a town, yet,
knowing that Mr. Robert Stephenson's attention
had been called specially to the subject of the sani-
tary improvement of towns, I could not but pre-
sume that his action would be in conformity to the
principles recognized by his hand and seal to their
reports, and I deemed any such exposition as that
sought from me wholly superfluous. I lament to
acknowledge from the evidence afforded in the pre-
sent case, and on other matters, which those who
are interested in the subject will find displayed at
p. 48 to p. 52 of a communication from the Geneitl
Board of Health to the Secretary of State for the
Home Department, presented to Parliament in 1855,
that I consider I was grievously mistaken.
I beg further to put a few questions on official
responsibility for the efficient expenditure of the
public money on public works.
I repeat the declarations of members of the House
of Commons in stating that the temporary House
ventilated by Dr. Reid was, after all said, the best
ventilated public assembly-room known in Europe,
and was a complete success. Yet, notwithstanding
that eminent success, he and his plans were set aside
in favour of eminent pretensions only. But now
members are loudly complaining that the ventila-
tion of the new House is an entire failure. To say
nothing of the mean injustice done to the successful
promoter of a new science, I would ask where is
the responsibility for the waste incurred by disre-
gard of the evidence of superior fitness derived from
success, in favour of persons who had no such evi-
dence to adduce in respect to the new and very
special work in hand? I have no acquaintance
with the Messrs. Easton and Amos; and, for myself,
from what I have seen of Sir Joseph Paxton's,
works, I should deem him a superior authority on
such a question as that of dealing with the purifi-
cation of ornamental waters and of park drainage ;
but, taking the undisputed fact in respect to the
works in St. James's-park, we have a case of success
in the preservation of life, as well as in the very
special work of the purification of an ornamental
lake. If the plan chosen in preference and in dis-
regard of such evidence should fail, as fail it does,
in my view, at the very outset in the essential part
of preventing the loss of life —where will be the
real responsibility for the pecuniary waste, not to
speak of the lives hereafter sacrificed ?
These points I submit for the consideration of
amendments in the law, with the view to adminis-
trative reform, and the imposition of real and effec-
tive responsibility, which 1 have always felt my-
self prepared to sustain. —I am, sir, &c.,
EDWIN CHADWICK.
Richmond, Surrey, Aug. 18.

TILE FORTIFICATIONS OF ANTWERP.

A letter from Brussels says : --As you have doubt-
less learned already by telegraphic despatch, the
principle of the projet de loi for the construction of
an enlarged circle of fortifications at Antwerp was,
after a lengthened and rather stormy debate, car-
ried in the Chamber of Representatives on Satur-
day by a majority of 57 against 42—seven mem-
bers having declined to vote.
I subjoin a summary of the discussion from
where I left off in my last despatch.
In the seance of Friday the adjourned debate
was opened by M. Guillery, who resumed his
speech, which was interrupted on the previous day
by the rising of the Chamber. The hon. represen-
tative said his object was to demonstrate to the
Chamber that Antwerp was not the natural posi-
tion for the national defences. Let them suppose
an attack coming from the south, in which case the
succours must evidently come from the east ; the
Belgian army should consequently occupy such a
position as would facilitate the arrival of such
succours. If the army were concentrated in Ant-
werp, it would be obviously out of the way of be-
ing able to facilitate or accelerate the required
assistance; and by the time it should have arrived
that position would be probably strongly occupied
by the enemy, and not by their own forces. If, on
the other hand, the attack came from the east, it
was the valley of the Meuse and the Sambre—it
was Namur, the very key of Belgium, which they
ought to occupy. The position of Namur for the
protection of Belgium was exactly that of Alessan-
dria for Turin. General Gyulai did not dare to
march upon Turin on account of the military posi-
tion of Alessandria. If, on the contrary, the Pied-
montese had had their basis of defence upon an ec-
centric point—upon Genoa for exampie (and Genoa
was less eccentric than Antwerp)—in that case no-
thing could have hindered the march of the enemy
upon that capital. Namur would protect Brussels
in every circumstance, and the capital should
be strongly fortified above all places. The speaker
proceeded to quote extracts from the writings
of General Jomini, Napoleon, General Rogniat,
and from Thiers' history in support of his views.
He then proceeded to say that Antwerp was the
place which the plenipotentiaries in 1814 and 1815
most disputed about, and for which Napoleon had
sacrificed so much. He was by no means disposed
to place the national reliance upon this single
place of war, for which the world appeared then
to dispute, and for which Napoleon sacrificed
everything ; believing that in spite of their forti-
fications it was likely, in the event of invasion, to
be captured by the enemy, who would find himself
vastly strengthened by the very fortresses B::lgium
had erected for her own defence. In 1851 theit
budget of war expenses amounted to 25,000,000 fr.,
and a hope was held out that it would bp reduced
in the foil ,wing years. It had, however, gradually
augmented every year since, and they had now
a budget presented to them amo-inting to about
42,000,000 fr. In conclusion, he said that their
strength ought to be in their moderation, in their
respect of treaties, in their honesty ; and upon that
strength he was willing confidently to rely.

A proposition for the adjournment of the dis-
cussion until the month of November, signed by
three representatives, was formally placed before
the President.

General CILVAL (Minister of War) opposed with
much warmth the proposed adjournment of the
question, which he said had, been for the last ten
years under consideration. Volumes, too, had been
written upon it, and it had been fully discussed by
the whole press of Europe. He, for one, thought
it would be much better to give up the projet
altogether than to submit to such an adjournment.
The adjournment which was moved was an excuse
for the rejection of the measure, which its opponents
had neither the courage nor the frankness to pro-
pose. Those only who in the moment of danger
would be found willing to bow their necks to the
yoke of a foreigner could lend themselves to such a
pusillanimous course. (Applause, mingled with
some expressions of " Order.")
M. GOBLET demanded to speak on a point of
order.

M. RODENBACH exclaimed that the Minister of
War had insulted a portion of the Chamber.
M. GUILLERY protested on the part of signa-
taries to the amendment against the insinuations
cast by the Minister against their courage and
loyalty.
General CHAZAL—It seems to me that a man
who defends such a question as that before us with
his whole heart, as I defend it, may be readily
forgiven for any warmth of expression into which
he may be drawn. Have I had any intention of
offending certain members of this Chamber ? No.
What have I, then, done here ? I am here to fulfil
the duty which I had solemnly promsed to dis-
charge when you granted me my naturalisation,
and when I swore to act as a true Belgian, and to
defend Belgium with all my strength, even in the
last extremity. (Applause.)
M. JAMAR pronounced against the adjournment.
M. HYMANS supported the projet de loi, and, in
the course of an able speech, alluded to England as
the citadel of European freedom, without which
the West would be the very humble slave of the
theocracy. To abuse France, he said, might be
awkward, impolitic, importune, and dangerous ;
but for any Liberals to attack England would be a
treason and an apostaey. It had been said that
Catiline was at their gates. Catiline had nothing
to say to their country. If ho were permitted to
take an example from Roman history he would tell
them that, in calling for their votes in favour of
this measure, they expected not the cry of the
geese of a Capit )1. (Laughter.) But even geese,
when they saved a country, were very respectable
geese. (Renewed laughter.) They ought not to
discourage their army, which was prepared to suffer
everything in their march to victory ; but let legis-
lators tremble for their country's liberty if they
declare it beforehand a vanquished force.
M. DEFRE declared that he for one shrunk
from the responsibility of opposing a projet de loi
which he believed to be necessary to the safety
and independence of the country. Independently
of the strategical questions involved, there was a
political cause for placing the refuge of the army
at Ant .verp. It was not from England that Bel-
gium feared an attack, for all the sympathies of
that great country was for free Governments.
England had in effect made a propaganda in
that sense in Holland, Switzerland, Sardinia,
and other places. In placing then, the centre
of their defences at Antwerp, Belgium would
be approaching nearer to the character of a true
;1E37. of England. The proj.iet of the GJvernment
would serve as the basis of two glorious things—
namely, their" nationality and their constitution.
He would say to the Right, Vote for this project
if you are the admirers of liberty, if you have not
denied the gods of your youth. Vote for it ye
who, in 1830, fought for the freedom of your coun-
try, and abjure not the distinguished title you then
earned for yourselves, namely, that of true patriots."
M. ROGIER (Minister of the Interior) contended
that Antwerp had been predestined at all times to
be the great defensive strength of the country. It
was not therefore any novelty which the Govern-
ment proposed; it was but a historical tradition
which they maintained. In the sixteenth century
it was the refuge of patriots against the Spaniards.
and for three months it resisted all the attacks of
Spain. On the Bth of August, 158:5, after three
months' resistance, Antwerp was forced to yield to
the unprecedented efforts of the Spaniards ; but so
long as Marnix de Sainte Aldegonde maintained
there the patriotic flag the revolution of the six-
teenth century was unable to vanquish Belgium.
In 1814 General Carnot, one of the first warriors of
that epoch, had the defence of that place. Whilst
the white flag floated then at the Tuileries, France
had also at Antwerp her national flag. Before
Carnet, after various negotiations, had consented to
the surrender of the place, he replied to the
Minister in the following terms :—" This place is so
important by its object, its strength, its position,
and its influence upon the whole of Belgium, that
a false step upon our part, we believe, would draw
upon us the greatest misfortunes. It is to the Em-
peror Napoleon that we have taken the oath of
fidelity ; we must keep thisplace until it is demon-
strated to us that his Government has ceased to be
legitimate." In 1831 the Belgian revolution had
triumphed almost everywhere. The garrisons of
Holland were abandoned by their forces without
scarcely a struggle. Her army withdrew to Ant-
werp, and whilst Holland maintained her flag on
the citadel of that place, it could not be truly said
that Belgium was completely liberated. She was
at length enabled, by the assistance of France
and England (to whom they should render
homage), to dislodge the Government of
King William, and to accomplish the com-
plete independence of their beloved country,
After such examples, they must acknowledge Ant-
werp to be their true centre of defence. From
century to century its enciente had been suces-
sively enlarged. and it was a remarkable fact that
in the sixteenth century a project. similar to that
now proposed was recommended. The Minister
concluded by calling upon the Chamber at once to
reject the question adjournment.
After some further discussion, the proposition
for the adjournment of the question until Novem-
ber was negatived by a majority of 58 against 43.
The debate upon the original question was then
again adjourned until the following day.
Yesterday the seance of the Chamber was
opened by the presentation, on the part of M.
Frere, the Minister of Finance, of the report of the
commission appointed by the Government to in-
quire into the question relative to the coinage.
M. DUMORTIEB, after referring to the report,

took the opportunity of explaining some matters
which related to himself personally.
M. ItOGIER (Minister of the Interior) said that
they would have much business to employ them if
they were to occupy themselves with all the inac-
curacies contained in the ordiaary speeches of M.
Dumortier. The reputation of the hon. member
was completely established upon that point.
M. DumoßTlEß—This language is intolerable.
M. ROGIER—I am prepared to maintain what I
have said. I have blushed at some of the observa-
tions made by M. Dumortier on Thursday. That
hon. gentleman is not afraid to threaten the coun-
try with a foreign occupation. Mark his theme.
He says our project is hostile to France and com-
manded. by England. I invoke the testimony of
my hon. predecessors, of M. Dedecker and his col-
leagues, in reply to so grave a charge. When the
late Government proposed their projet de loi upon
this subject, I ask whether they had yielded to the
suggestions of England or the menaces of any
foreign Government whatsoever.
M. DEDECKER—No person can accuse you of
that.
111. ROGIER—No person can accuse us of that.
But I call upon the Chamber to remember the speech
of M. Dumortier.
M. DUMORTIER—If I were to employ your lan-
guage under such circumstances, I should say that
your statement is false. (Cries of " Order, order.")
M. RoGIER—Mark, gentlemen, the position in
which we stand. When such a projet de loi is pre-
sented by a Catholic Ministry it is considered na-
tional ; but when it is presented by a Liberal Mi-
nistry it is detestable and anti-national.
After some further passages of arms between
some of the members of the opposing parties, the
discussion was closed by a division, when Article I
of the projet de loi was adopted by 57 votes against
42; seven declining to vote.

THE LATE COMPANY'S TROOPS

IN INDIA.

(From the Times.)
Our correspondence from India has now revealed
the full dimensions of that discreditable embarrass-
ment which a single mistake on the part of the
Government of Calcutta was sufficient to create. It
is no trifle in the present state of Indian finance
that the blunder should have cost us, as it certainly
will, a milliOn of money. But money is the least
important consideration in an affair so critical.
But for the accidental presence of an extraordinary
European force, India would have lost at a blow
one-third of its garrisons, while the whole Empire
would have witnessed the spectacle of a powerful
Government surrendering, without either grace or
thanks, to the all but mutinous demands of its
soldiery. The concern naturally caused by such an
event becomes doubled by the reflection that it
might have been prevented with the greatest ease.
A trifling donative and a few words of compliment,
neither costly nor undeserved, would have saved
all this embroilment and loss, nor could it have
required any extraordinary wisdom to discern the
dictates of the occasion.
The impression prevailing among the European
troops of the Company respecting the claims on
the transfer of India to the Crown was matter of
such notoriety at an early period of the late disturb-
ances that our Special Correspondent made it a pro-
minent subject of communication in repeated letters
to this journal. Everybody in India knew that the
men looked upon their engagements as terminable
with the existence of that Company which they had
contracted to serve. It was also understood that
their views, at that moment, did certainly not pro-
ceed beyond the expectation of a moderate gratuity.
Some, perhaps, might liave looked a little further,
but the great majority would undoultsdly have been
contented with the ceremony of a fresh option and
I the gratification of a second bounty. The occa-
sion was precisely one to test the good sense and
judgment of the Indian Administration. The
affair, as it stood, appeared trivial enough, but to
the eyes of a true statesman it would have ap-
peared full of import. From a purely legal point of
view, the claims of the men might probably have
been declared inadmissible, nor did there seem even
an equitable right to compensation where there had
certainly been no prejudice or damage. But the
rulers of a great empire should not confine their
views to considerations like these. A thing maybe
lawful without being expedient, and this &scrum .
nation, though peculiarly suggested by the case be-
fore them, was exactly what the Government of
India failed to observe. We may remark, as illus-
trative of certain points recently discussed, that no
such error was committed by independent observers
in this country. Notwithstanding the speciality of
intelligenceclaimed for Indian statesmen they were
left far behind in this matter by Englishmen at
home. Our readers will remember the opinions we
expressed before the transaction had assumed its
serious aspect, and these opinions were followed by
the almost unanimous assent of others. The Indian
Government, however, had persisted from the first
in limiting the question to the legal rights of the
men. Lord Canning and his Council forgot, even
with the din of the last tempest still ringing in
their ears, that military discontent, however ground-
less, was a thing to be handled with judgment. In
the estimate and calculation of results they failed
altogether. It never seems to have occurred to them
that the men, though mistaken, might be obstinate,
and that their obstinacy might be carried to lengths
which would involve a formidable dilemma. Above
all, they never balanced one policy against the
other, or discerned that concession would cost little
and might yield much, while refusal might put
everything in jeopardy and cost a great deal more
after all. As it happened, too, there was nolick of
justification for the more liberal course. Though
the claims of the men might not be legally sustain-
able, they did really admit of argument, perhaps
even of doubt, and the services of the army had re-
cently teen so arduous and so successful that the
donative anticipated might easily have taken an
unobjectionable shape. All this, however, was
overlooked, eru the authorities at Calcutta, shaping
their policy by the mere letter of the law, an-
nounced to their expectant troops that their hopes
were extinguished and their claims denied.
The result of this shortsighted rigour we now
witness. The deportment of the men under the dis-
appointment became such that the decision of Go-
vernment had to be reconsidered, and after one re-
ference had followed another it was finally an•
nounced that the soldiers who believed their
engagements to have terminated might claim their
discharge. Of this option such advantage has been
taken that according to the estimates current in
Bombay some 10,000 disbanded troops will leave
India for England, and thus entail upon us the ex-
pense and trouble of supplying their places with as
many fresh recruits. A few rupees per bead judi-
ciously distributed at an early stage of the contro-
versy would have saved us all this cost and embar•
rassment, for at that time nothing but the chance of
a new bounty had seized the minds of the men.
The course of recent events has tended naturally to
transform their ideas. They now find their position
in India unpleasant, and they hope to better it at
home. They know that they have given offence,
and doubt whether the offence will be forgotten.
An additional year of service in the Eat, unaccom-
panied by the excitement of a campaign, has quick-
ened their desire of revisiting their native shores,
and the end is, that men who wished at first only
for a bounty on remaining where they were have
now claimed their dismissal by thousands.
Happily the fortuitous accumulation of Royal
troops in India has relieved India from the dangers
which this abrupt reduction of military force might
otherwise have occasioned, and in this respect the
damage will be limited to the inconvenience suffered
by regiments irregularly detained, and the disap-
pointment experienced by those who were expect-
ing them at home. The whole story, however, is
really too serious to be overlooked. It yields us a
warning which we cannot afford to neglect, an d that
is, that we should put our Indian affairs in better
order without delay. Of Lord Canning we need
only say that he has done enough in weathering
the storm of the Mutinies without needlessly ex-
posing his political reputation to further trials. It
is no imputation on his abilities to say that they
are not calculated for the administration of India
at a period of convulsion. Two things are clear—
first, that we now want in India a man who can
deal promptly with emergencies ; and, next, that
no such a man is at present in authority at Cal-
cutta. The two Mutinies are over—one at a cost
of millions of money and thousands of lives ; the
other with a lighter penalty, but with an unplea-
sant amount of discredit. Who can tell how soon
a third emergency may succeed ? All things Indian
are in a state of transition. The scale and compo-
sition of the military establishments, the relations
of the British Government with the Native States,
the policy to be pursued towards the Hindoo popu-
lation—all these important subjects are pressing
urgently for attention. India is in debt and in
difficulty. It does not pay its own way in taxes,
and it returns us just now even less tribute in the
shape of credit or power. Our keenest statesmen
are beginning to regard this magnificent and much-
envied !ependency with altered views, and to dis-
cern in the most brilliant jewel of the British crown
an unmanageable incubus on the British Empire.
We believe these apprehensions to be really ground-
less. We believe that India needs nothing beyond
good administration to make its possession truly
valuable, but this condition must be satisfied at
oitee. Wu must have its administrators chosen for
their intellect and their merits, not for their inte-
rest and their rank. The old East India Company,
which in this respect did so often well, had no
better field to choose from than we possess now.
There are now, as there were then, men in England

who are competent to ir ,vern India, but if we make
this great affair one of -.unscrupulous patronage in-
stead of anxious discri m ination, we may some day
find ourselves overwhe In ied iu a ruin more tremcno
dous than we can yet (to; lceive.

BRITISH RIGATITS IN BRITISH
_HONI)URAS.
An incident has just occurred which tends to
strengthen public confidt,ence in the present conduct
of the Foreign-office wiith respect to the preserva-
tion of British interests in Central America. The
rights of Spain in the continent of America were
those of conquest. The true test of conquest is per-
manent occupancy. Tel7q-itory never occupied, never
belonged to Spain. Ti; e present republics of Cen-
tral America cannot p)ssess any better rights than
the parent country, un/bess they can show that they
have acquired them in ,some way recognised by the
law of nations. Thix ty years ago Ruatan and
Bonaca were uninhabited islands. They have since
that period become occupied by British subjects,
and by British subjects only, taken possession of,
like any other uninhabited island, on behalf of the
Queen, and form a pax It of her Majesty's dominions.
by as good a title as Vancouver's Island. About h.%
weeks ago some CariAes of the Republic of Hon-
duras went over to the island of Bonaca to fish.
The magistrate on the: island put them on board a
British schooner, the Industry, and sent them as
prisoners to Ruatan. On their passage to Ruatan
these fishermen rose an the crew of the Industry,
and carried the schooner into Truxillo, where
the Commandant proaeeded to try the captain for
interfering with the fishermen. The captain de-
murred to the jurisdiction, abandoned the vessel, and
reported the matter to the superintendent at Belize.
The superintendent sent to the Governor of Jae
mike, who at once ordered a ship of war to Trux-
illo to demand satisfaction. This little event will
probably have the effect of bringing to a point the
rights of her Majesty to those important islands,
and of defining the policy her Majesty's Govern-
ment intend to pursue with respect to this long-
vexed question. Mr. Wyke, the new plenipoten
tiary, is, no doubt, duly instructed how to act.'
-Liverpool Albion.