The Sun.
London, England, 1859-11-18 00:00:00

LONDON BRIDGE.

Mr. Deputy BOWER brought up a report from
the Improvement Committee, recommending that a
sum of £42,288, being the balance of theLandon-
bridge Approaches Fund, ending the 10th of Octo-
ber last, should be paid over in further liquidation
of charges by her Majesty's Commissioners of Parks
and Palaces.

THE LONDON RIFLE BRIGADE.
Mr. Deputy CORNET moved that the Court should
contribute 100 guineas in aid of the funds of the
London Rifle Brigade. He said he thought the
time was come for the Corporation of London to
take action in the matter; and when they had
done sn, he hoped the great merchants and bankers
would follow that example, for which they appear
to be waiting. It was a question of very great im-
portance to mercantile men and men of property ;
for if 100,000 men landed as an invading force
upon the shores of this country, the funds would go
down in a moment, and all would suffer enormously.
(Hear.) He knew there were many members of that
Court who were rigid economists ; but, nevertheless,
he believed the only objection offered to his motion
would be upon the score of the smallness of the sum
which he proposed that the Court should vote.
Mr. BARKLY had great pleasure in seconding the
motion, although he regretted that it proposed so
paltry a sum. At the last Court they had sanctioned
an expenditure of £l,lOO upon the Mansion-house,
and far such a purpose as that to which the pro-
posed grant was to be applied, 100 guineas was a
paltry sum indeed. (Hear.) The country was now
up, and although we had nothing to fear from our
pretended friend on the other side of the water, yet
it was as well to be prepared ; and, if prepared, he
had not the slightest doubt we shoulk be able to
crush any attempt, made upon this country. (Hear.)
His only fear was that the movement would make
-our young men too military ; that, in their martial
enthusiasm, they would forget the counting-house ;
and that, instead of waiting for the enemy, they
should invite him to come over as quickly as possi-
ble, for the sake of seading him back again. (Cheers.)
Mr. Alderman ROSE, Vice-President of the Lon-
don Rifle Brigade, said he still adhered to his origi-
nal opinion, that rifle brigades, in the event of an
invasion, would be one of the most important means
of defence possessed by the country. He hoped to
see the movement prosper as it prospered during the
late war, when London raised a force of 20,000
volunteers, and when the enthusiasm of the country
at large, as displayed in its volunteers, compelled
the most ambitious man of the age to forego the de-
signs which he entertained against this country. He
hored the result would be the same now if the same
ambitious designs were entertained by any other
foreign potentate. With regard to that Court, the
Council of the London Rifle Brigade wanted their
money less than an enthusiastic expression of opi-
nion in favour of the.movement, and that expres-
sion he had no doubt would now be given. (Hear,
hear.)
Mr. ELLIOTT expressed his opinion that a grant
of 100 guineas only by the Corporation of London
for such a purpose was altogether below the require-
ments of the case. They frequently grantad that
sum for purposes which, however good in them-
selves, bore no comparison in importance with the
volunteer movement;. and he should like to see
every member of the Corporation contribute his in-
dividual £lO, and the Corporation as a liody con-
tribute at least £2,000. (Hear, hear, and oh, oh.)

He should therefore move as an amendment that
the sum to be granted should be £2OO instead of
£lOO.
An objection was taken to this amendment that,
by tho standing orders of the Court, an increase
upon a sum proposed to be voted must be made the
subject of a notice, and thereupon
Mr. ELLIOTT moved that the standing orders
should be suspended, in order to enable him to sub-
mit his amendment at once.
Mr. Alderman COPELAND seconded this. In 1781,
he said, the Court had liberally given to the Royal
Artillery Comhany those brass guns which still
stood on the ground where that company practised,
and banners to the City Light Horse. In 1804 they
voted £5OO to the River Fencibles, and a sum for
colours to several of the city regiments of volunteers
amounting to £542 ; and in the same year to vari-
ous volunteer corps for military carriages, for the
purpose of expediting their progress over the coun-
try the Court voted a sum of £432. Thus, 50
years ago, the Court voted £1,400; and now the
motion only asked for 100 guineas, an amount
which hs considered to be altogether unworthy of
the occasion.
Mr. Deputy HARRISON warned the Court not to
consent to the suspension of a standing order, the
rigid maintenance of which was their only protec-
tion against the granting of large sums of money
by surprise.
Mr. Alderman ROSE said the Council had large
funds at their command, and that a grant of 100
guineas, unanimously and enthusiastically, would
be all that they wished. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Deputy DAMN remarked that there was no
analogy between the state of things now and in
1804. Then, the Corporation and the movement
generally met the exigencies as they arose. Then,
there was a formidable camp, at the disposal of a
more formidable man, in hostile attitude opposite
our coast. Now there was nothing of the kind ; but
if such a state of things should again come about,
the Corporation of London, as they had ever been,
would be among the first and foremost to meet the
emergency. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Alderman LAWRENCE contended that on such
an occasion they might very properly suspend the
standing orders, so as to enlarge the proposed grant.
(Hear.) He did not say that there was any imme-
diate danger, but all over Europe, as well as in this
country, an unet‘sy feeling was abroad, whioh ren-
dered it a duty incumbent upon them as men of
business to take immediate steps for the defence of
the couutry and the protection of their property.
(Hear, hoar.)
After some further discussion, Mr. ELLIOTT con-
sented to drop his amendment, and the original
motion was then agreed to in a mode strongly ex-
pressive of patriotic enthusiasm.
" To THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND COMMONALTY or THE

CITY OF LONDON.
" The Memorial of the London, Chatham, and Dover Rail-
wa Co any
" Shovreth,—That they Londo mpn, Chatham, and Dover
Railway, as authorised by Parliament, extends from
Beckenham by Chatham and Canterbury to Dover, with
branches to Sevenoaks, Sheerness, and Mai gate, and with
powers for transmitting traffic over the lines of other coin-

panies from Beckenham to the London-bridge terminus of
the Brighton Railway, and to th's Victoria station at Pimlico.
" That a portion of your memorialists' line is already
open and at work, and tho residue, which is in rapid pro-
gress, will ho completed next yglar.
" That Parliament has alrady decided that your peti-

tioners are to have independent access to the east and west
ends of the metropolis, but the only lines over which such
access can now bb afforded are insufficient for their existing
traffic ; and your memorialists, in anticipation of the speedy
completion of their line between Beckenham and Dover,
have determined to apply to Parliament for authority to
extend their lino from Beckenham through Penge, Syden-
ham, Norwood; Dulwich, Brixton, Ilerne-bill,Denmark-
hill, Camberwell, IValworth, and Newington, crossing the
river below 13lackfriers-bridge, 'passing at the back of the
east side of Bridge-street, crossing the foot of Ludgate-hill
by a screened viaduct to a terminus on the east side of
Fortingdon-street, communicating by junction lines with
the metropolitan terminus in Victoria-street and with
Smithfield.
" That the proposed extensions also comprise communi-
cations in a direct line from Beckenham with the Brighton
and South-Eastern Railways at Sydenham, the South •
Western Railway at Battersea, and the Victoria station at
Pimlico.
" That plans and sections of the proposed extensions are
now in course of preparation, find will be deposited, and a
bill introduced next session.

That the advantages of theline to the public in reliev-
ing the bridges and their approaches from omnibus, goods,
and other traffic, as well as affording the most direct and
perfect communication between the whole system of rail•
ways north and south of London, will be apparent from
the course of the lines as above described, and an exami-
nation of the map and drawing of the proposed station in
Farringclon-street which accomi)any this memorial.
(1 That your memorialists do not seek any pecuniary as-
sistance from the Corporation of London, but pray your
hon. Court will refer the subject matter of this me-
morial to the committee, to inquire and report as to the
proposed undertaking with regard to the interests of the
citizens of London, and that if it should be approved your
hon. Court will give it the weight of your influential sup-

oort and sanction, and, itsrofcience to -a committee to treat

for the purchase Or rental of the site on which the Fleet
Prison formerly stood, or qf other vacant ground in.that
locality, belonging to 'the ,eorporation, which may be re-
quired for the purpose of the undertaking.
"And your memorialists will ever pray, &c."
This nlelnorial 'mink been read by the Town
Clerk, several of the direettis of the company ap-
peared at the bar, and, in reply to various ques-
tions, said that the present capital of the'company
was £2,000,000, and that the extra capital re-
quired for carrying out the additional works now
contemplated was .£1,500,000, which they antici-
pated no difficulty in raising; that' the railway
would cross the river about 150 feet from Black-
friars-bridge; that it would cross Ludgate-hill by
a viaduct; that the station would be on the east
side of Farringdon-street, with an entrance from
each end .of that street; and that the company were
acting in perfect unison with the Metropolitan Rail-
way Company, with whom they would cooperate in
supplying London with the best possible central
railway station, as well as in improving the neigh-'
bourhood generally—as, for instance, by bringing
out Seacoal-lane on to Ludgate-hill—and that the
railway would join the Metropolitan Railway, by
a tunnel carried under Skinner-street.

Mr. VALLANCE said he presented this memorial
at the instanee of several of his constituents, from
whom he learnt that the directors of the com-

pang were persons of the highest respectability,
fully competent to carry out the proposed
undertaking, if it received the approval of tho
Corporation and the sanction of Parliament. (Hear,
hear.) Their railway had been already constructed
over a considerable portion of the line, and would
be speedily completed over the entire length from
Dover to the Victoria station at Westminster. The

present proposal was to make a branch line over
the Thames to a station in Farringdon-street, and
to connect it by means of the Metropolitan with the
Great Western, the Great Northern, and the North
London Railways for the intercommunication of
,through passengers by day, and merchandise and
market goods by night, between the suburban and
provincial railway systems north and south of the
Thames. He had no connection whatever with the

memorialists ; he asked only to have the memorial
referred to a committee for examination, and should
hold himself free to give it his support or opposition
when the report came up to the Court, as the cir-
cumstances might seem to require. It might, per-
haps, be remarked that he was one of the original
promoters of the Metropolitan Railway—(hear)--
which would be indirectly benefitted by the union
with this line. lie was almost ashamed of antici-

.. _ .
pating such an illiberal mad unworthy insinuation
as affording any ground for op osing the prayer of
this memorial ; but such insiu ations were some-
times made against members of t e Court and mem-
bers of his own or other professidns. Men who de-
served or feared such imputations ought not to have
a scat in that Court. (Cheers.) For his own part
he should never, in the discharge of his duty to his
constituents, be deterred froze doing what was right
for fear of an insinuation that he intended to do

. _
what was wrong. The city of London wanting the
facilities which railways afforded, the street traffic
was likely to be brought to a dead lock by the con-
fluence of railway vans and omnibuses which were
employed in conveying passengers and goods to
and from the numerous stations with which
its narrow and irregular streets were sur-
rounded on all sides. In deference to the declared
will of Parliament and the Press—to which
even the chairman of the Markets' Improvement
Committee had been obliged to bow—the Cor-
poration had expended nearly half a million of
money in transit rring the cattle-market from Smith-
field to Copenhagen-fields in the northern extre-
mity of London, notwithstanding which sonic of
the leading thoroughfares of the city were as much
encumbered as ever by the transit of cattle and
sheep to and from the market. Tens of thousands
of horned cattle and sheep annually passed over
Black friars-bridge from the great grazing districts
south of London, and were taken to the metropoli-
tan market, where several thousands were pur-
chased by contractors and country butchers, and
driven in herds through the city and over the
bridges to the railway stations south of the Thames.
The project embraced in this memorial, it was true,
proposed the construction of a railway bridge
only to communicate with its own particular
railway; but when before the committee it
would be open for coasideration whether a commu-
nication with the other southern lines might not
be combined as well as a road for carriage
and foot passengers. The Seine was crossed near
Paris by a railway and carriage-road on the same
level, side by side. At Newcastle, a magnificent
structure crossed the Tyne with a carriage-road
under one of the greatest trunk railways in the
kingdom ; and at Londonderry, in Ireland, a hand-
some iron bridge was now in the course of construc-
tion to carry the railway under the carriage-road
which was wider and deeper than
overt the
ThamFoyesaletihe spot where the memorialists pro-
posed to pass over the Thames. (Hear.) Referring
to the city of Derry, he could not refrain from mak-
ing a single observation showing the advantages
both in point of economy and utility which might
be obtained by combining different important ob-
jects in one great and comprehensive scheme of
public improvement. Ile had recently visited Derry
as one of the deputation of the Irish Society, and
he found vast improvements were being made by
the combined action of the Corporation and the Port
and Harbour Commissioners, in co-operation with
the Irish Society. The society had made a fres
grant of the soil and shores of the river req'iired
for quays, railways, and graving-docks, and had
contributed an annual sum for a given number of
years to aid these various undertakings, which were
now progressing with great rapidity, and had al-
ready given such a stimulus to the commerce of the
port that, as he understood, the revenue of the
undertaking thus partially executed would enable
the spirited promoters to carry it entirely into
execution. (Hear, hoar.) Although the construc-
tion of the bridge had not been directly aided
by the society, it was the increasing prosperity
of the city and port that had induced the Com-
missioners to commence the work which had
been for several years in contemplation. Such
had heen the improvement which had of late years
taken place in economising the cost of such struc-
tures, that the contract for the bridge now being
built to accommodate carriage and railway traffic
had been undertaken by a firm of first-rate character,
with ample security for its completion, for £54,000
—a sum deemed insufficient only a few years since
for the construction of an ordinary bridge for
carriages only. It had been said that in this
age of progress it was not a matter of rare occur-
rence for children to presume to give instruction to
their parents. It would be worthy of observation
if the city of London, after two centuries of con-
nexion with the city of Londonderry, should have
to be thus taught how to effect such an important
improvement in its means of intercommunication
as a double bridge over the river would afford.
(Cheers.)
Mr. VALL.tNCE then moved a reference of the
memorial to the Improvement Committee to report
thereon, after conferring with the City Lands, the
Bridge house Estates, and the Markets Improve-
ment Committee, in resp,:ct to the several matters
under their control.
Mr. Deputy llAnai:os seconded the motion, re-
marking that the plan now proposed to be carried
out was a part of the scheme long ago recommended
by eminent railway engineers, as being essential to
perfect the railway communication of the city ; and

that it was to him personally a matter of congratu-
lation that he might aid in introducing a second
railway terminus into ti e city.
The motion was then agreed to.
Mr. CONNELL said he some time ago presented a
memorial from Mr. Bell with reference to a pro-
jected railway by the Regent's Canal. That me-
morial was referred to the Improvement Committee,
but nothing was heard of it since. He wished
therefore to ask the chairman of the committee
what had been done in it ?

Mr. Deputy BOWER said that, as the committee
upon inquiry found the scheme would not at all
touch upon property belonging to the Corporation,
they had as yet taken no action in the matter.
The Court then adjourned.

LORD SRAF7'ESBURY AND THE JOUR-
NEYMEN BAKERS MOVEMENT.

Yesterday a deputation from the London Journey-
men Bakers' Association, consisting of Messrs.
Blackmore (president), Bennett (secretary), Hat-
field, Thompson, Hare, Pidgeon, Ward, Rose,
Hill, and \lr. Lwall, the secretary to the Early
Closing Association, waited on the Earl of Shaftes-
bury at his residence in Grosvenor-square, for the
purpose of soliciting his aid and co-operation in
promoting, the objects of the movement now in
course of agitation amongst the journeymen bakers.
Mr. LILWALL, in introducing 'the deputation,
said he did not know of any class of men who suf-
fered so much as the journeymen bakers, and the
object of the deputation was to lay before his lord-
ship a plain statement of the hardships and mise-
ries they underwent.
His LORDSHIP said he believed the object of the
deputation to be to propose a remedy fur the pre-
sent state of things.
Mr. BENNETT then made the following state-
ment :—That the grievances of which the Journey-
men bakers had to complain were that they were
compelled to work an unlimited length of time for
a fixed remuneration, and their working hours were
in many instances 18 to 20 per day, and in many
shops towards the end of the year the men com-
menced work at eight o'clock on Thursday night
and continued until ten and eleven o'clock on the
Saturday evening. Their work on the Sunday de-
pended upon the will or caprice of the masters, and
on that day they were employed in much unneces-
sary labour, and many employers, if they were sold
out on the Saturday would compel the men to make
bread in defiance of the statute prohibiting the
making of bread on the Sabbath ; they were coin-
pelledto lodge in the houses of their employers,
and their sleeping-rooms were invariably in the
bakehouses. He instanced a case in which six men
were obliged to take their turn in sleeping, as there
was only one bed provided for the whole of them.
Married men were denied the privilege of all home
comforts and domestic intercourse with their fami-
lies. They might manage to get home for three or
four hours in the evening, but as they must return
to their employment by eleven o'clock, they had no
time to fulfil the obligations devolving, upon
them as heads of families in the guidance and in-
struction of their children ; they were also pre-
vented from fulfilling the ordinances of reiigloas
worship, their attendance at their work prevent-
ing them being present at the morning service, and
the over-exhaustion consequent upon their unna-
turally protracted toil rendering it necessary to
spend the few hours they had in recruiting their
exhausted frames with sleep. lle spoke advisedly
when he said there were not 10 journeymen bakers
in 100 who ever attended Divine worship, and a
very considerable proportion had not done so for
years. It was useless for them, as individuals, to
offer any resistance to the demands of the masters,
who could compel them to perform any amount of
labour they saw fit to exact, as their immediate
dismissal would be the result of their non-com-
pliance; and as the masters would say they refused
to perform their duties, it would be impossible for
them to obtain employment elsewhere. The con-
sequences were that they were forced to submit
without a murmur to things at which all that was
noble in their natures revolted. The homes pro-
vided for them being of such a character had a
tendency to make them prefer the public-house,
and the exhausting nature of their toil b.-got a
desire for alcoholic stimulants, and it could not be
denied that many of the men 'did fly to them. They
had attended numerous meetings of the employers,
who, with some exceptions, began to see the neces-
sity of a change. They were anxious to consult
his lordship as to what he considered the most
effective means for obtaining redress of their griev-.
ances, which they proposed to effect by moral-
suasion awl the force of public opinion. Some of
the employers wishe4 them to strike, but they were
opposed to this plan, believing the result of a strike
would be most disastrous.
Lord SII,FTESBURY, in reply, stated he thought
they had done wisely in rejecting the idea of
a strike, which they must not think of. Work-
men were no doubt jutified in combining in
order to dispose of their labour as profitably
as possible, but he deprecated the exercise of
that right in so extreme a measure as a strike.
Strikes always fell before capital when the em-
ployers were combined, although they might
succeed when directed against a single em-
ployer. His lordship having asked several questions
bearing upon the old and propose l new system,
then proceeded to say there were only two ways of
dealing with their grievances. One was by a
strike, which they must not attempt or mention
again; and the other by applying to the Legisla-
ture for an act, which he should not advise them to
do until they had exhausted every other means.
They should keep their cause before the public.
He would recommend them to calla public meeting
at Exeter Hall, to which the masters should be in-
vited, so that the case might be fairly laid before
the public. He called on the men, in discussing
their grievances, not to mix them up with matters
of a political nature, as was the cast in some measure
with the builders. They had enormous grievances to
redress, but not require either a strike or an act
of Parliament. He suggested that they should ask
for one thing at a time—say the abolition of night
work.

In reply to his lordship,
Mr. BLACKNIORE here dated that the system
now in use had been 100 years in growing up.
The deputation suggested that the proposed
meeting should be held in March.
His Lordship replied, March would be too late,
as this country might then be involved in a war
with France. When it was held, he had no doubt
he should be able to take the chair.
having thanked his lordship, the deputation then
retired.

TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION BETWEEN
_RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES.

Mr. Collins, the United States commercial agent in
the Amoor, has projected an overland telegraphic
communication between Russia and the United
States through Northern Europe, Asia, and America,
by connecting Moscow with St. Louis, in Missouri,
via Behring's Straits. The length of the telegraph
wires would be 14,000 miles, with only 40 miles of
submarine cable. The distances of the intervening
points between the termini are as follows, viz.:—
From Moscow to the mouth of the Amor, 7,000 ;
to Behring's Straits, 2,500 miles ; across the Straits,
40 miles; to San Francisco, 2,500; and to St.
Louis, 2,000 miles. The only countries through
which the telegraph would pass would be Russia,
British America. and the United States. From
Moscow to the mouth of the Amoor the cost of the
line is estimated at £2O per ;mile, to Behring's
Straits £3O per mile, across the Straits (submarine),
£lOO per mile, to San Francisco £5O per mile, and
to St. Louis £4O per mile. The total cost £500,000.
One thousand men would be required to maintain
the line at an expense of £OO,OOO a year, and 100
stations on the line would cost £20,000 a year.
These sums, with the interest on the capital at 7
per cent., with contingencies, would involve an
annual expenditure of £135,000. 200 ten-word
messages every week day for the European and
American press, at a dollar a word, would yield
£125,000 a year. Business news going east and
west, including Chinese and Japanese news, would,
it is believed, yield £50,000 a year, so that the
telegraph line would produce an annual income of
£175,000 a year. The wires would be within a
week's reach by steam of China and Japan. The
line would pass through Siberia, where there is a
population of 8,000,000, with an annual foreign
commerce of £10,000,000, and through Tartary,
where there is, including Mongolia and Manchooria,
a population of 50,000,000. It may be mentioned
that the Russian Government ha-re already com-
menced stretching a telegraphic wire from Moscow
to the Amoor, which will of course pass by the
Chinese frmitier ; and when it is completed to the
Gulf of Tartary, it will doubtless not be long
before submarine cables are laid across the seas of

Ochotsk and Kamschatka to the Russian posses-
sions of North America. Already the land tele-
graph in the United. States has extended from the
Atlantic to Aitcheson in Missouri, and has com-
menced from the Pacific side to Salt Lake City.
The distance between the latter and Aitcheson is
only 1,000 miles.