The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-26 00:00:00

THE THAMES EMBANKMENT AND OTHER
METROPOLITAN MATTERS.

(Front the Obserrer)
A Royal Commission will be immediately issued,
to whom the question of the Thames embankment
will be submitted for inquiry, and if possible for
completion. This commission will be composed of
seven gentlemen, selected for their competency for
the task, and their connection with the public
interests at stake. The chairman will be the Right
Hon. W. Cuhitt, M.P., the present Lord Mayor
of London. The other members will comprise Air
Thweites, the President of the Metropolitan Board
of Works ; the Secretary of the Thames Conservancy
Board, and two or three engineers of eminence.
To these will be entrusted the preparation and the
construction of the great works, with which will
no doubt be combined, if practicable, the execution
of the low level sewers of the metropolis. The
labours of the commission will be greatly lessened
by the several plans submitted from time to time
and the successive inquiries set on foot, especially
the report of the House of Commons in the last
So soon as the commission can mature
their plans a bill will be brought by the Chief
Commissioner of Works to carry them out. The
Home Secretary will propose a more limited area
for levying the coal duties, and perhaps will modify
their amount.

The 20 miles' area is considered as unjust to those
who are outside the boundaries of the metropolitan
improvements, and even the police area of 15 miles
may by some be considered too extensive ; but it
is clear that a circle must be taken. The area of
the Metropolitan Board is objectionable, as being
too small, and as being irregularly extended in some
directions. It would not do, for example, to levy
coal duties on the Kentish banks of the Thames, and
allow them to be landed free of duty on the Essex
side of the riser. _ _ _

The Chief Commissioner has proposed a small bill for
the purchase of some houses to extend the site for
public offices ; after which he will probably ask for
a vote for the construction of the Foreign Office,
when the plans are approved of.
He will also proceed with the bill for the pur-
chase of houses and lands, and the consolidation of
the law courts and offices, in the neighbourhood of
the Inns of Court, in spite of Lord St. Leonards'
captious opposition.
Lord Derby has given a strange notice respect
ing the progress of London railways and the
ejection of the working classes from their homes.
It has puzzled the curious not little ; but we
believe it is chiefly with a vi aew to remedy
the injustice done to weekly tenants, who come
in for no share of the large compensations claimed
by the owners of these lucrative tenements, whilst
the poor occupier gets nothing, and is thrust forth
to seek a habitation elsewhere.

FATE OF A FEMALE GAMBLER,—A letter from
Frankfort, of the 19th inst., says:—" The day before yes-
terday an English lady, who had resided at homburg for
some time, and had been a constant visitor to the gambling
saloons, where by degrees she had lost almost all her pro-
perty, left the town and went to the village of Kirdorf,
about three miles distant. She ascended the tower of
the new church there, and, having first tied her legs to-
gether, threw herself from the tower to the earth, a dis-
tance of about 100 feet. When picked up she was still
living, but was conveyed to the hospital at Homburg in
an exceedingly deplorable condition."