The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-03 00:00:00

THAMES EMBANK MEN T.

We may safely say what was the one reflection
that occurred to almost every reader of the Report
upon 'the Embankment of the Thames :—" This is
all very well, and glad should we be to see it done;
but everybody knows that at the very nick of time
somebody will get up with the tenet excellent rea-
sons for delay, with the suggestion of something
very much better, or, at least, that we should wait
for the chance of something better." Now, that is
just what has happened. Sir John Shelley, un-
dertaking to represent the Metropolitan Beard of
Wallis, starts up to protest, not against any early
decision or action, because there can be no decision
till next year, or action till a long time after, but
against the intention of Her Majesty's Government,
to introduce a bill embodying this scheme next
year. Her Majesty's Government having appointed
a very good commission, and obtained a very good
report, very naturally and properly wish to act
upon it, particularly as that is their only security
that anything will be done. Sir John Shelley de-
mands that Government, having begun so well, shall
now sit down and do nothing, in order that the
Board of Works may have
,time to think what
they will do, or whether they will do anything
at all. There never was a demand so utterly out
of reason. It is a cool proposition to bind not
only Her Majesty's G wernment, but Parlianient
itself and the people of England, hand and foot,
and lay them down before the august tribunal
of the Board of Works. Supposing Her Majesty's
Government to proceed with their work, and pre-
pare a bill, giving the usual notices, the Board of
Works may do the same.. They may have their
bill side by side with the Government bill; their
"notices may be delivered on the same day, and appear
in the adjoining columns of the same newspaper.
The two bills, or the twenty bills, may then be i: -
troduced into the House of Commons on the same
evening, and lie compared by the whole world. We
will venture to say that the two bills would start
with equal advantage, for the bill of the Metro-
politan Board would certainly receive the kindest
consideration from Lord Detby and his friend 9, as
on the occasion, and very possibly with the result,
approvingly mentioned by Mr. Ayrton. There
could hot be a fairer race in the world than one
between a Ministerial and a Metropolitan scheme
for the Embankment of the Thames, to come off
next session. Sir John Shelley, however, has been
so blinded by these Metropolitan gentlemen, who of.
all things hate a race which they are not sure to
win, or a fight in which the result has not been
previously arranged, that he forgets the very de-
cency of the turf, and demands that the Metro-
politan shall have no competitors. What next ?
What sort of a world, think you, this would soon
be, if everything was to be left to the leisure of
elderly gentlemen, only to be roused from their
easy chairs by the excitement of a job ?
We shouli be sorry indeed that the Govern-
ment bill should have such an advantage as to
supersede any others, or prevent a proper considera-
tion of their merits. But it is quite clear that, if
Mr. Cowper submits to be bullied out of a bill, we
shall first lose all the good of the Royal Commis-
sion, and then have to accept the Metropolitan
plan, whatever it may happen to be, next session
or wait indefinitely—till the year 1900 perhaps. As
a matter both of principle and of convenience we
believe this to be a Government responsibility, and,
butfor what we must call Mr. Cowper's unfortunate
admission, we would much rather see it done by a
Royal Commission. The simple and practical cha-
racter of the report is itself enough to prove that
this is the right quarter to go to for the execution
of the work. In the Metropolitan Board there are
too many personal or local interests energetically
at work for anything simple or rational to come
out of it. Let our readers just consider the inte-
rests fighting for these acres of mud. There are
three or four railway companies wanting lines,
junctions. and stations, upper levels as well as lower
levels. There are a score or two owners of wharfs.
There are owners of property innumerable, for
every proprietor south of the Strand, Fleet-street,
and Cheapside has an interest in the matter. A
good many coal merchants have also something
to say to the bill. On one point the Metro-
politan Board has already declared itself, and,
as we think, wrongly. It has decided in favour of
docks all the way from Southwark-bridge to West-
minster. Indeed, that is the chief question before
Parliament—a solid embankment or docks. It is
not without reason that the Royal Commission
have decided against treating the Thames as if
it were the Mersey, and carrying a series .of docks
right up to the Houses of Parliament. Where the
Thames water is embayed, and so suffered to rest,
and wherever it is considerably retarded, there it
deposits mud faster than any artifieal means can
clear it away. We shall never see the Thames water
so purified but that a dock will be a nuisance
on its bank. Then, docks are no longer wanted,
.except for seagoing ships. It would not assist any
monopoly, or increase the cost coal one farthing
a ton, or inconvenience anybody,of
if all the wharves
between Westminstei and the Temple were bunked
up. If London cannot afford the necessary compen-
sation, the new sites created in front of the wharves
will be very valuable for other purposes. One feels
however, that the very persons who are standing
out for the preservation of the wharves in the City
of Westminster would have stood out with equal
obstinacy for the preservation of Fleet-ditch when
it was open and full of ships right up to Holborn ;
and when, in fact, a large sum of money was spent
upon it, and soon found to be thrown away.
We are at a loss to understand Mr. Cowper's
concession that the Metropolitan Board is to have
the execution of the work. If this means more
than that they are to be employed formally and
ministerially to carry out a work in which they will
have no power to make the least change, then we
cannot wonder at the sense of indignity expressed
by the friends of the Board. But we see no reason
in the nature of the thing why they need have any-
thing to do with the work, unless it be confined to
the carrying the low level sewer through it, instead
of the Strand. Many great improvements affecting
the whole metropolis have been executed by Com-
missioners. The bed of the Thames is now the pro-
perty of the nation, and it certainly is a national
object that the metropolitan river should be well
managed, its banks handsomely and conveniently
laid out, and the work done well and permanently.
Dr. Johnson very properly describes the Strand
as one of the world's great thoroughfares,—a stream
of mankind. But, if this is a national question, in
our humble opinion the Metropolitan Board has
not decided it in a national sense. We are sure that
if the educated classes of England were polled
whether they would have the immense area of mud-
banks between Westminster and Blackfriars co-
vered with a solid embankment, with a broaddscamr;
car-
riage road, gardens, and here and there hake
or on
°
edifices, either covering the old river
ban
the approaches, or have it converted
into
a range
of docks for coal, hay, and other commodities, they
to the
would decide in favour of the
neces-
solid embankment
the de-
duction dissentientithou t the v
voice. It
hesitation, ttioz:
aa
sanitary
.nwi
tiat
rhy hardly
sandneces-
sary ry at so
suggestion suchhe thatf
ua l l
etmatterohuers pe r
ttehrAa itss
the tide,
da eo, nation.fanw and that
necessary for
of the surface the embank.
to observe that oefsfoernOthftt late years all that has
ment will be a serious loss to the ebb and flow, we
beenhave deoenlye with the Thames has increased the tide •
and this is, in fact, the chief danger to be provide 4
(Tatidal inst. Much more water
arnow ascends this
river than before the demolition of old London-
bridge, and the ruin of Westminster and Black-
friars bridges is ascribed
to that increased scour.
Then, should it be found necessary, nothing will be
easier, as the Royal Commissioners observe, than to
excavate basins higher up the river. This, however,
is altogether an imaginary apprehension, invented
to palliate the nuisance of dooks....riffleB.