The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-18 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER
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•• ,„ .... between the North and the Soakt wita qtrtion
of slavery or 'ery. (Hear, hear.) But e said

no slava
farther. He added that at this moment the North
were considering the propriety of adopting as a
battle cry the question of universal freedom. Theyr.
(the meeting), who knew what it was to have been
trammelled politically,
like the boa constrictor
twined itself around its victim, must feel some
sympathy in such a cause as universal freedom and
equal rights for all men. ()War.) This question of
slavery had beset the South and embarrassed the
North, and had threatened the whole question of
human progress in the American dominions. It was
not for us to say that we interfered because we re-
quired cotton, for no considerations of a commercial
character should interfere with our conclusions in
the matter; but still, at this moment, when Eng-
land had made tbisutffair.of the Trent an affair of
the first importance—when Louis Napoleon would
follow England, as he always did—was it for us
to go to war because America could give no satis-
factory explanation ? Rather should we say to
them—" You have taken these men unjustifiably ;
will you submit the question to the opinion of a
neutral admiralty court, and let them decide be-
tween us? (Applause.) If we did this he thought
we stood before the world as a great nation, jealous
of its honour and acquitted of the charge of having
gone to war for cotton. It was hard for us, who
looked with sympathy upon the struggles of all
races for freedom, who had spent so much in extin-
guishing slavery in our own dominions and limiting
it in America, to go to war against a people who
were about to do the same as we had done. (Hear.)
But whatever might be the result of the message
which England had sent across the Atlantic, we
must still remember that we were men, lovers of
our country and our species, and though we loved
to see the honour of our country, like Cmsar's wife,
above suspicion, we should fight—if we did fight—
with men who would utter their battle cry in our
own tongue, ask for mercy in the English language
and do battle with a constancy and heroism which
they had inherited from us, their mother country.
If it was to be a war for honour, a war because our
flag had been insulted, he would be the first to lift
his voice in its favour, but still we must remember
that if we were victorious the colour of our ensign
would be deepened with our brothers' blood, and
that if it was to be a war of commercial principles,
the cotton would come to us purpled with the blood
of a fratricidal struggle. (Cheers.) We should
therefore pause and consider with calmness the
question before us, and if we fought at all, fight for
a good cause, and one that on reflection our con-
sciences would approve of. The Lon. member re-
sumed his seat amidst loud applause.
A resolution was afterwards carried by acclama-
tion, expressing continued confidence in the. hon.
member.

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBEII.

PRICE..... ...4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

party of invalid troops •of various cavalry and in-
fantry corps, to tho num:ber of 53 men of all ranks,
at Fort Pitt Hospital, Chatham, from the Cape,
having disembarked frora the same vessel.

cellars. A much greater evil than the water is the
mud-banks in front of the Palace. They are pes-
tilential, and truly awful. 'That is a continual evil,
in consequence of the decomposition of animal mat-
ter. Two persons have died iu Lambeth Palace
from fever arising, it is believed, from the malaria
produced by the mud-banke. The Conservators of
the Thames have relieyed it by bringing a quantity
of materials and throwing them upon the mud, but
it is now as bad as ever. I believe that an embank-
ment of the Thames would clear away those dread-
ful nuisances of bone-boilers which at present exist
between Lambeth Palace and Vauxhall-bridge.
The embankment would sweep them away, as the
ground on which their premises stand would be
wanted. The water has been increasing at Lam-
beth Palace for the last two years, but why it has
increased I cannot say. It has increased in depth
at Lambeth Palace, and I conclude it must have
increased over the whole area. Any water that
covers the mud banks must be very impure. Still,
if the mud banks were continually covered with
water it would be a great improvement. The smell
in the houses was very foul after the floodings.
When the floods are out I have been carried from
my office on a man's back, so deep was it. I con-
sider these mud banks are highly dangerous to
human life.

food. 8731 b. were diseased, 761 b. were from animals
that had died from natural causes, and the rest was
putrid. All of it has been destroyed at the boilers'.
72 births and 46 deaths were registered in the city
during the week. The latter are greatly below the
average for the season, for in the corresponding
week of the last six years the proportion of deaths
was 63. Nearly half of the deaths were among
children of less than five years of age, and only 6
were among old people. The chief causes of death
were returned as follows :—Phthisis;s ; mesenteric
disease, 3 ; bronchitis, 5 ; pneumonia, 2 ; whooping-
cough, 4 ; continued fever, 4; scarlet fever, 2 ;
croup, 1; diphtheria, 1 ; and:infantile convulsions,
7 ; there being 8 deaths from tubercular disease, and
13 from zymotic. The Court passed an order autho.
rising an inspection and report forthwith by the
district surveyor of the dilapidated houses indicated
by Dr. Letheby.

Orders were yesterday received at the headquar-
ters of the Royal En2iqeer establishment, Chatham,
directing the Sappers axid. Miners selected to be
transferred to the 181 company, at Portsmouth, to
leave the garrison this morning for Southampton,
where they will embark with the main body of the
18th on board the West India mail steamer Parana,
chartered by the Government for the conveyance of
reinforcements to Canada.
A draught of upwards of .200 officers and men
left the camp at Colchester on Monday en route fer
Canada. The orders directing the departure of the
draught only arrived or. Saturday evening.
The Ist battalion Military Train, together with
No. 4 battery, 10th brigade, Garrison Artillery,
under orders for Canada, will be paraded this
morning at half-past eight at Woolwich, and after
inspection by Gen. Sir Richard Dacres, command-
ing the garrison, will proceed to the Arsenal sta-
tion, and leave Woolwich by special train at 10
o'clock for embarkation on board the Adriatic at
Southampton. The battalion consists of Major
Hill, in command, Major Johns, Capn. Buller and
Harris, Lieuts. Lane, Williams, Clarke, Benthall,
Roberts, Ensigns Crawford and Wink worth, Lieut.
and Adjt. Cummin, Paymaster Bryson, Quarter-
master Mitchell, Surgeon Fox, 300 non-commis-
sioned racers and men and two staff clerks. The
battery of Artillery consists of Capt. R. P. Gabbett,
commanding, Capt. M. Tweedie, Lieuts. W. H.
King Harmer, G. A. French, and E. Bradley, Assist.-
Surg. F. It. Hogg, 7 sergeants, 4 corporals, 2 trum-
peters, and 100 gunners. The whole of the men are
in the most healthy and robust condition, and are
highly pleased with their selection for the expedi.
tion.

Mr. Snook, an architect and engineer, living
close to the river, strongly urged the necessity of
extending an embankment on the south side of the
river. He had been engaged in building wharf
warehouses on the south side of the Thames, and he
hoped to obtain the assent of the Corporation of
London to raise the wharf walls a foot higher.
Under the Metropolis Local Management Act a
rower was given to distinct boards to order pro-
prietors of wharves to raise their wharf walls so as
to keep out the water, but they had refused to ex-
ercise that power. He suggested that such matters
should not be left in the hands of district boards,
but should be vested either in the Thames Con-
servancy Commissioners or the Metropolitan Board
of Works, but if they were to be with the district
boards, then they should be compelled to exercise
the powers entrusted to them.
The Commissioners then adjourned.

THE EMBANEME.NT OF THR SOUTH
SIDE OF THE THAMES.

Yesterday afternoon the Royal Commissioners,
appointed to take into consideration the question of
the southern embankment of the Thames, held their
flrst public meeting at the office of the Commis-
sioners, in Victoria-street, Westminster. The Lord
Mayor occupied the chair, and the other commis-
sioners present were—Sir Joshua Jebb, Capt. Gal-
ton, Capt. Burstal, Mr. J. Thwaites, and Mr. Hunt.
The meeting was held to hear from certain inha-
bitants of Lambeth the evils to which the inhabi-
tants on the south side of the river are periodically
subject, in consequence of floods, by the overflow of
the Thames.
Mr. Robert Taylor, a member of the Metropoli-
tan Board of Works for the borough of Lambeth,
was called and examined by the Lord Mayor. He
said the inhabitants on the banks of the river being
in the parish of Lambeth suffered the greatest evils
by the overflow of the river, and often there were
several feet of water in their houses, causing the
greatest damage to their property, and rendering
them almost destitute. There was a fund esta-
blished, called " The Flooding Fund," for the pur-
pose of assisting the poor people from the mishaps
they suffered from the overflowing of the Thames.
He had himself frequently seen boats rowed in
Fore-street, Lambeth. It was his impression, and
it agreed with common sense, that if the north side
was to be embanked, the south side should be pro-
tected, as he believed if there was an embankment
on the north side, there would be a greater pressure
on the south side. The erection of coffer dams at
Westminster-bridge had had a most disastrous effect
on the part of the parish of Lambeth lying between
Lambeth church and Vauxhall-bridge. At ordinary
tides the water came up the sewers, but at extraor-
dinary tides it came over the public ways. He had
seen the tide flow over the stone wall in Bishop's-
walk, running by the side of Lambeth Palace.
The Lord Mayor asked if the addition of two or
_ _ _

CITY COMMISSION OF SEWERS.

Yesterday the Commissioners of Sewers held
heir weekly meeting at Guildhall—Deputy Harri-
son acting as chairman. A special committee of the
Commission, appointed in September, on business
relating to the Metropolis Gas Act, reported that
they had had under consideration the draught of a
bill to be introduced into Parliament, as directed by
the Court of Common Council on Thursday last, to
exempt the City from the provisions of the Metro-
polis Gas Act of 1860. That bill the committee now
submitted for approval to the Court, and asked to
have it referred back to them, with power to con-
duct it in Parliament in such a manner as they
might be advised. The report, which was signed by
Deputy Christie (the chairman of the Commission),
Deputy Harrison, Mr. George Walter, and Mr. L.
Houghton, was agreed to without a dissentient. A
petition was presented by Mr. G. Walter of inhabi-
tants of the ward of Farringdon Without, agreed
to at a large public meeting, at which Alderman
Sir James Duke was chairman, complaining of
bad faith in the Great Central Gas Company in
raising the price of their gas, and in favour of the
bill for exempting the City from the operation of the
Metropolis Gas Act. It led to some discussion,
in which Dr. Ross defended the Great Central Com-
pany, and Dr. Abraham took part with the peti-
tioners, and it was eventually referred to the select
committee on the gas question. The Commissioners
then passed to the consideration of the tenders they
had invited for lighting the public lamps in the
city, 2,825 in number, with gas, for one year from
the Ist of February next. The City of London Gas
Company offered to supply gas for bat's-wing
burners, consuming sft of gas an hour, at £5 sseach
a-year ; or, consuming 3ft an hour, at .£3 1 ls. The
Chartered Gas Company tendered to supply for
£4 8s per annum each bat's-wing burners consuming
sft an hour, and the Great Central Company for
£4 10s. For some time past the Great Central and
the Chartered Companies have, between them, con-
tracted with the Commission for lighting the public
lamps in the respective proportions of 1,700 and
1,100. None of the three companies separately can
supply the public lighting, but any two of them
can together. On the motion of Dr. Ross, seconded
by Dr. Abraham, it was resolved, substantially, that
the tender of the City of London Gas Company for
supplying the public lamps within their present
district be accepted, on condition that, in the event
of the Commissioners requiring the adoption oi the
carburating process to all or any of their lamps
lighted by the company, the annual charge for each
bat's wing burner, consuming 3ft of gas per hour,
should be £3 11s ; and that the carburating process,
if adopted, should be at the risk and cost of the
Commissioners. Mr. Millar, the secretary of that
company, was called in and apprised of the decision
of the Court, and he undertook, on the part of the
directors, to enter into the contract on these condi-
tions. The tender of the Chartered Gas Company,
as stated above, was also accepted by the Commis-
sion. The effect •of this new arrangement is to
exclude the Great Central Company from the public
lighting, and to substitute for it the City of London
Gas Company. The area assigned for some time
past until now to the Great Central, and hence-
forth to the City Company, is lighted at a cost
of nearly £B,OOO a year. On the conclusion of
this part of the proceedings, Deputy Lott com-
plained that much of the important business of the
commitsion had of late been deferred or slurred
over during the gas agitation, and he suggested, in
a facetious spirit, that they might do well to set
apart special days for those explosions. Dr. Letheby,
the medical officer of health, reported on the state of
196 houses inspected during the week, and he sub-
mitted a list of 43 places for sanitary improvement,
some of which places were in the locality of Golden-
lane, where fever has prevailed. He reported that
he had visited the district, and inspected every
house where fever had occurred. Many of the houses
are in a dilapidated state, and require the immediate
attention of the district surveyor. The medical
officer again submitted to the notice of the Court the
dangerous and unwholesome condition of the vacant
ground in Brackley-street, Golden-lane. He stated
that it was the depository of the filth and refuse
matter of the neighbourhood, and that a large por-
tion of the fever which had lately prevailed in that
district was immmediately in the vicinity of the
ground. He remarked, however, that, with a few
exceptions like this where fever is bred, the city has
for a long time past been remarkably free from
zymotic disease. Five years ago the annual mor-
tality from fever in the city was about 160, whereas
last year the number of deaths from the disease was
only 70. The sickness returns of the disease
among the poor have also been reduced in like
proportion ; for, while the general average of such
cases was about 800 in the year, last year there
were but 154. Even in the present quarter, not-
withstanding that elsewhere the disease has been
unusually prevalent, the sickness returns of fever
among the poor in the city have been less than half
their usual number. It is true that the mortality
returns of the disease have been rather excessive;
but they have been furnished by the better
classes of the community, and it would seem as if
we had driven the disease from the homes of the
poor into the dwellings of the rich. It is more
than probable, indeed, that the poor are better cared
for in this respect than the rich ; for, while the
houses of the one are open to systematic inspection,
and to every kind of sanitary improvement,
the houses of the latter are beyond the supervision
of the sanitary officer. The markets and slaughter-
houses have been duly inspected in the course of
the week, and the officers have seized 1,3421 b: of
meat and 821 head of poultry as unfit for human

three tiers of brickwork would not keep out the tide?
Mr. Taylor said Mr. Stiff, a potter in the neigh-
bourhood, had raised his wharf wall six inches, and
yet the tide came over it.

The Lord Mayor remarked that it was obvious,
f the wharf walls were raised high enough, that
;hey would prevent the tide from flowing over
;hem:

Mr. Taylor said there were certain ancient dock-
ways in Lambeth from which persons landed their
goods, and these docks at one time were the only
means they had of getting water from the river.
As that was an ancient right, how to alter it they
did not know.

The Lord Mayor—Could not the wall be raised
so as to keep out the tide, starting from low water
and rising up to the street ?

Mr. Taylor thought they could hardly do that,
as i❑ High-street materials were landed from barges
for the purpose of repairing the roads. The idea
had been for some years to make a street from
Palace road through Lambeth, and the plan had
been laid before the Metropolitan Board of Works.
Had that been done means might have been taken
to prevent flooding. It was his opinion that any
embankment on the north side would materially
increase the flooding on the south side. The first
indication of an overflow was by the water bula-
Wing up through the gullies and gratings.
Captain Galton—Do these floodings take place
at every spring tide ?

Mr. Taylor—Yes, and they overflow the banks
about every two months ; but persons living near
the banks can give you better information upon
that point than I can. As an officer of the parish I
have been called up at four o'clock in the morning ;
and after women have fetched their children out of
the houses and put them into the street, the parish
engine has been fetchedto pump out the water from
those floors which were flooded. There is a balance
of £75 in the flooding fund, raised entirely from
the subscriptions of those who chose to contribute,
and the Archbishop of Canterbury had been
a liberal donor to it from the notice he
had seen in the newspapers. What these
poor people suffered did not meet the public
eye, but it was patent to those who lived
in the district. The floods covered Fore-street, and
extended up to the burial ground in High-street.
The overflow extended for upwards of 100 yards
from the river. There are a great many houses
near the river in which poor people reside, and the
consequence was that when these overflows took
place, we are obliged to take them and their families
into the workhouse, as they have no other place to
go to. The medical officers have frequently called
my attention to the damp state of the walls of the
houses in which these poor people are obliged to
live, and the walls become so saturated with the
water that they never become dry, although we
give them money to enable them to purchase fuel.
many persons
haveln co nr
es emqouveendc ea
woafy t
fhreo sme
the
000pdairnigs
s
h. lam glad to
see wharf walls raised, as they keep the water out,
but I am not sure that the evil is not made worse
elsewhere in consequence.

Mr. Knyvett, secretary to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, was the next witness—lie said, I wish
to state the nature of the evil, and the extent of it
that is suffered in reference to the flooding of pro-
perty in and about Lambeth Palace.gardens. We
are troubled about 20 times in the year on an ave-
rage. The porter has to watch 20 times in the year
for the water, and when he finds it coming he puts
boards and sand to prevent it coming in the Palace
gardens, and also into the lodge in which he lives.
It happens at spring tides, and when the wind is
in a quarter to blow the water up the river. It is
indicated in its approach by the water bubbling up
the sewer gratings. I have seen boats in front of
the Palace, and there is a representation of it in the
Illustrated London News, which is not exaggerated.
A board is put to the Palace gate, with 18 inches
deep of sand behind it. As the casual observer, I
have seen in Pedlar's-acre all the houses with
waterproof boards to keep the water out of their