The Sun.
London, England, 1857-08-05 00:00:00

FE L SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 5, 1857

wanted freedom of conscience let them come amongst
Dissenters where they would be able to luxuriate on it
to their hearts' desire. (Laughter.)
Mr. RIDLEY supported the clause.
Lord EBRINGTON- said that there had been
several of these disputes in the dioceses over
which it; was -the misfortuse of the Bishop
of Exeter to preside, and cv bat was remarkable
in connection with them, that Tories of the old school
had been as indignant as dissenters against the bishops'
conduct. He thought it was time to show the bishops
that if they lorded it over the clergy, they must not over
the people, and that they were noi: superior to the law.
Mr. NE%VDEGATE considered the Legislature had
the effect of de,troying discipline in the Church. Par-
liament ought to have sufficient courage to compel the
bishops to do their duty under the present law. ,
Mr. SALISBURY supported the clause.
The clause was then agreed to.
Mr. KNIGHT moved the addition of a clause to the
bill, the effect of which would be to give burial boards
the power of making their own bye-laws, and thus get
rid of the present controul over them of the Secretary of
State for the Home Department.
Mr. MASSEY on the part of the government objected
to the clause.

A discussion ensued after which the clause was
negatived without a division.

The remaining amendments were then agreed to, and
the bill ordered t,) be read a third time to-morrow.
SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS BEFORE JUSTICES
OF THE PEACE BILL.

The committee on this bill was resumed and the
clauses were agreed to.

METROPOLITAN POLICE STATIONS &c. BILL.
This bill passed through committee.
BOUNDARIES OF BURGHS EXTENSION
(SCOTLAND) BILL.
Oa the motion for the house going int) committee on
this bill,

Lozd MELGUND protested against the bill being
proceeded with, with so thin an attendance of Scotch
members. He had variousoLjections to the bill. He consi-
dered it ought not to be carried on, and he suggested that
the bill should be postponed till next session.
After some remarks from Colonel SYKES,
The house went into committee, and the clauses were
agreed to.

DUNBAR HARBOUR (CONSOLIDATED FUND.)
The report was brought up and agreed to, and a bill
ordered to be founded thereon.
DIVORCE AND MATRIMONIAL CAUSES
(STAMPS.)

The report was broli;?„ht tin and agreed to.
ILLICIT DISTILLATION (IRELAND) BILL.
The amendments t,,, this bill were considered and
agreed to and the bill was ordered to be read a third time
to-morrow.

WILLS, &a., OF BRITISH SUBJECTS ABROAD

BILL.

The amendments to this bill were also considered and
agreed to, and ordered to be read a third time on
Thursday.

ELECTION PETITIONS BILL,

The committee on this bill was resumed, and the re-
maining clauses were agreed to, and ordered to be read
a third time tomorrow.

BURIAL GROUND (SCOTLAND) ACT (1855)

AMENDMENT BILL.

This bill was read a third time and passed.
The sitting was then suspended till 6 o'clock, when
the house resumed.
STATE OF THE THAMES.

Mr. ESTCOURT obtained an order for returns of
copies of correspondence between the First Commissioner
of Works and Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney and the Com-
missioners of Sewers and the Board of Works, on the
state of the river Thames and the pollution of the atmos-
phere on the banks of the Tnacues and the Houses of
Parliament.

clime, that no suit for jactitation of marriage shall be
entertained, WAS expunged.
The debate upon the 6th Mamie, which occupied
much time, brought into view the effects of the Bill in
relation to marriages and divorces in parts of the
empire other than Eng►and, to which the bill is
limited.

Upon reaching the Bth clause the Chairman was or-
dered to report progress.
The Insurance Companies Bill was committed pro
forma.
The Clerks of Petty Sessions (Ireland) Bill was
withdrawn.

The Representative Peers (Ireland) bill passed through
committee.

Mr. WHITESIDE, in moving the second reading of
the Leases and Sales of Settled Estates Act Amend-
ment bill, dwelt upon the injustice wh:ch he said had
been done to Sir T. M. Wilson with reference to Ramp-
steal-heath, and which this bill was intended to
remedy.

The motion was seconded by Mr. MALIN&
Mr. COX moved the adjournment of the debate, and
after some discussion this motion was agreed to.
PERSIA AND HERAT.
Mr. WARREN asked whether the Government bad
received any intelligence of the refusal of the _Persians to
evacuate Herat I

Lord PALMERSTON.—I do not believe that any
intelligence had been received as yet with regard to the
evacuation of Herat. I do net think there has been
time for a communication to be made after the arrival of
the Commissioner at Teheran.

The honse then aAjourned at 20 minutes past 1 o'clock.

RUSSIA 1117 INDIA.

(From the Morning Post.)

Everybody who has lived in an Eastern country
is aware of the rapidity with which intelligence
passes from hand to hand. Eyed before printing
became general up the Mofussil, reports were cir-
culated in India almost with the quickness of the
electric telegraph. A rumour—a watchword_a
common cry—an event—was passed from mouth
to mouth and from station to station, the or:ginel
propagator running like the Swedish Vorespann,
and delivering his message, whatever it might be,
to a friend, who ran likewise his assigned distance,
committing the message to a third party. In this
way immense spaces were traversed in a single day,
and intelligence was communicated by some fifty or
sixty runners to thousands of people, influencing
them either for good or evil. Something of the
same system appears to have been adopted by the
native Press and newswriters in India. Whenever
the conductors of this infamous press perpetrated a
peculiarly malignant or incendiary article against
English rule, care was taken to spread it far and
wide by trustworthy runners and messengers—by
what, for want of a better word, we will call the
Indian Vorespann. In this way it was that litho-
graphed lies were spread through whole presiden-
cies without stint or measure, and that the only
news circulated was poisonous news. That the
noxious venom produced its effect on the native
mind there can be no doubt ; but whether the wri-
ters in this native Press were instruments and tools
in the hands of some foreign power, or mere gratui-
tous incendiaries, remains yet to be proved. The
native editors, writers, and contributors to the In-
dian Press are all a bad and disreputable set of men
who have learned little of European civilisation but
its corruptions and its vices. Desperate in fortune
and ruined in character, they may have aced solely
from the desire to create mischief and confusion and
to profit in the scramble, but we think it much
more likely that they are the ready tools and paid
instruments of a foreign Power, and that Russian
gold has been profusely distributed among them.
Our French contemporary, Le Pays, announces
in a letter from Calcutta, that a certain Russian,
whose name we need not print, had been very busy
for some time in British India, and that, a short
while before the mutiny he had set out for Delhi.
Now, this looks more than suspicious, and, coupling
it with the previous intrigues of Russia in Persia,
Affghanistan, and. British India, and the subse-
quent events, it is more than suspicious—it is
damnatory. With a few thousand pounds in
hands, supplied by Armenian or Greek ban'eers, er
money-lenders at any of the Presidencies, a Russian
agent might find half-a-dozen native editors pre-
pared to do his work, and ready to send these
nouvelles a la main, these incendiary flying sheets,
through not merely Bengal, Behar, and Benares,
but through the country of the Nizans, Oude, and
the Guicowar. In the days of Louis XV. the
Lieutenant of Police, notwithstanding all his vigi-
lance, could not prevent the circulation, through-
out French society and the provinces, of satiri-al
articles directed against the French King and his
mistresses, and these nouvelles a la main were for
the most not printed, but written in thousands and
tens of thousands of copies, for more easy circula-
tion. in India, where there are myrials of
crannies, or writing-clerks, who could easily tran-
scribe a page within th,i dimensions of an ordinary
visiting card, it is not difficult to suppose that
written sedition or treason may have been propa-
gated far 'and wide. Under these circumstances
it was a measure of wisdom and precau-
tion to place the native press under stringent
restrictions. As to the Indian Press published in
the English languege, its conductors are now
under a grave responsibility, and we trust they
will feel its weight. They must be well aware
that now our real strength in India consists of
the European e'ement ; and to that element th-y
should give a generous support. We can now,
and for some time to come, only retain our domi-
nion in Bengal by the power of the sword and by
a large military establishment; but notwith-
standing this hard necessity imposed on us by
mutiny, the' country will be as well and es justly
governed as at any antecedent period. That the
country has been Justly, governed appears from
this, that the people have been quiescent and pas-
sive, while it is the soldier only who has muti-
nied. The men whom we have paid for our
defence have proved faithless, and the people
whom we have taxed, according to some Indian
reformers, not wisely but too well, have been true
to us to a man. Recent Governments, whether
Protectionist, or mixed and Coalitionist, appear
to have attempted to &lenge toe much in India
for the sake of change. All cl ange is not reform
or inapr ivement, an l there are not wanting many
able men, who know India well, who consider that
we have attempted too much rather than too little
in Hindostan. There is a noisy, besy, restless,
fussy friction •in India, as well as here,
where it calls itself the People and Parka
mur4, and former CaLine's have too often
yielded to the pressing clamour of these cliques.
Nothing has more tended to exasperate the
Brahimnical caste against British sway in India
than this anxiety to alter, if not to amend—to
change, if not to ameliorate—to reform, if not to
eleva'e, the native. No doubt it is our duty to
rescue the Indian people, if we can, from the de-
spotic dominion of the native priesthood ; but this
must be done, if at all, gently and slowly, and not
rashly and precipitately.

As the Brahmins consider the tendency of all
education, amelioration, and improvement, pretty
much in the light in which the Pop'sh priesthoJd
regard the reading of the Bible—namely, as op-
posed to their undue dominion and power—it is
quite cert tin they have worked on the prejudices
of the sepoy against our sway, partly from per-
sonal motives connected with their priestly func-
tions, partly because they are, like the newswi;ters,
the paid instruments of a foreign Power. But,
notwithstanding the knavish tricks and treasonable
practices of newswriter3 and Brahmins, aided by
foreign gold, we shall continue to hold our Eastern
Empire—first, by the exhibition of an over-
whelming furce ; but, within twelve months, by
our moral influence, by the opinion entertained of
our wisdom, our justice, and of our equitable
government. The permanent causes of our suc-
cess and power in India lie in the discipline of our
European troops, in the general zeal and union of
the civil servants and the military for the public
service, and in the commanding influence of that
national repute which has never been sullied by
tyranny, or tarnished by injustice.

UNION OF TBE P.RINCIPALrTrEs.

(From the Daily News.)
The crisis in Turkish and Danubian polities,
which we have long foreseen and for etol 1, has oc-
curred. We have repeatedly said that the obstinacy
of the British Ambassador in himself supporting,
and making Reschid Pacha support, those func-
tionaries who were deternmed to put down the
cause of the Union in the Principalities, not by fair
means, but by the most gross violence and tyranny,
would lead to the nullification of the 'Treaty of
Pari., by giving France cause for backing out of it.
Had the Union been fairly and honestly opposed,
France could have recurred to no such extreme
measure. It is the continual boast of the antago-
nists of the Union, that the Moldavians are averse
to it. Why not, then, have left to the Moldavians
the free expression of thsir opinions ? Instead of
this, Prince Vogorides was male ruler of the coun-
try, for the sake of using every violence and trick
in order to carry the anti-unionist vote. The proofs
of his having done so are too patent to be denied.
By supporting Vogorides in these practices, Lord
Redclift'e has put it in the power of the French am-
bassador to charge the Ports with a breach of the
conditions of the Treaty of Paris. And the French
ambassador is unfortunately right. M. Thouvenel
accordingly threatens to withdraw from Constanti-
nople, which means neither more nor le s than a
threat to withdraw altogether from the Treaty of
Paris.

The Sultan could not of course abide by such an
alternative, which would deprive him for the pre-
sent and the future of the support of that army
which so mainly contributed to the capture of
Sebastopol, and to the destruction of Russian power
in the Black Sea. Lord Redcliffe has been for the
last month pushing the Porte to this extremity.
He bas been combating the Union of the Principa-
lities per fas et nefas ; and he has been doing this
under the plea that he wanted to strengthen the
Porte. We long ago pointed out that no strength
which Turkey could derive from preventing the
Union of the Principalities—supposing that pos-
sible—was at all comparable to the danger of
alienating France from the Sultan. This lat-
ter result has, hawever, been recklessly braved and
provoked by Lord Redcliffe and Reschid Pacha,
until at the ultimate threat of France to withdraw,
the ground fails beneath both, the Sultan perceives
his danger, and the Grand Vizier, who has been
acting under English advice, is overthrown, and is
compelled to leave the place to his rival.
The whole of this business is as disgraceful as it
is untoward to the British Government. Our Mi-
nisters, in their support of Vogorides were illiberal,
impolitic, and insincere. It is all very well to twit
the Emperor of the French with being such a stick-
ler for fteedom of election in Moldavia, and with
setting the letter of it at nought at home. —But
surely England ought not to screen its own dupli-
city under that of a despotic power, compelled by
the false course upon which it has entered to dire
and extreme expedients. The words of Lord Cla-
rendon, and the promises of the Treaty, were that
the Principalities should be fairly consulted. If
it was imprudent to consult them, the promise
should not have been made ; but if made, it ought
to have been honestly kept, especially by such a
country as England. Here in the West, we may
understand and perhaps excuse the falsification of
elections, but people in the East are simple. And
when they see England promising a boon one day,
and then striving to cheat the Danubians out of it
the next, they cannot but settle down into the be-
lief that England is that base and Machiavelic
country which continentals have so long taken the
pains to depict us.
We do all this wrong, we commit all this illibe-
rality, we break with all that is patriotic and
Christian and enlightened in the Levant—for what
purpose ? To strengthen the hands of the Porte,
and to wield influence through the Turkish Divan.
And what is the very first result of our efforts, but
to overthrow our own friends, destroy our own in-
fluence in the Divan, and hand over all influence
and authority in Turkey to our inveterate enemies.
Policy so shortsighted is scarcely to be conceived.
The dominant idea with Lord Redcliffe and
Lord Palmerston has been not really to strengthen
the Turkish empire, but to concentrate all power at
Constantinople—as if that were strength. The true
strength of the empire would be to a'tach the ow-
lying provinces to the Government—not sacrifice
them thereto, and thereby render them disaffected
and weak. Gratify the fair demands of thePrinci pa-
and they will be bulwarks for the defence of
Turkey. Disappoint, trick, despoil, and discontent
them, and you have provinces which, like Lom-
bardy in Austrian possession, require an army to
keep them.
And for what purpose do we labour to concen-
trwe all power at Constantinople ? On what does
power there depend ? Ou a corrupt Minister, or a
capricious concubine. If England lords it one day
in the Bosphorus, France is sure to do so the next,
and. Russia, we may be sure, will haveits turn. No
one can be sure for twenty-four hours of the colour
or policy of a Turkish Government. It was most
important at the present moment, in the face of
an Indian mutiny, and with the probable resuscita-
tion of the Persian war, to keep a Turkish Minister
in power whO was the riend of England. Instead
of keeping this in view, we stir heaven and earth
against the Union of Moldavia and Wallachia—as
if that were a question of either vital or secondary
importance. Yet to it have been sacrificed the
vizierate of Reschid and the influence of our Am-
bassador. Never, surely, was there so complete an
exemplification of the sacrifice of the grande poli-
tique to the petite.

THE DIVORCE AND MATRIMONIAL
CAUSES BILL.

(From the Times.)
At this season of the year perishable articles, if
kept rather too long, are apt to become not only
stale, but actually offensive. Sue% is the present
phase of the exceedingly epheint,ral, captious, and
factious opposition to the Divorce and Matrimo-
nial Causes Bill. Mr. Warren took it up last
night, and we give Mr. Glild4one and his friends
joy of the treatment their cause received at the
hands of the ingenious novelist. This gentleman,
like Mr. Malins, starts with demanding a whole
Session and the restoration of his youthful powers
for the proper examination of this bill. Ho has,
nevertheless, had time and strength enotigh to
arrive at some co;iclu-ions. Marriage, he says, is
indissoluble. This, he says, is the law of Eng-
land. Our hundreds of Divorce Aqs have been
" a barbarous usage," imported into this count: y, I
we presume, wi-h that other barbarous system,
Constitutional Government. Notwithstanding 1
the " usage," which Mr. Warren admits,
these Divorce Acts have been national sins, and
a base betrayal of truth and religion to the
convenience of a comparatively few rich pers Ins.
Mr. Warren takes his stand on the New Testament.
To a corrupted age, six generations deep in foul
national sins, be proclaims that We is a consistent
Christian, and that he recognises no moral prin-
ciple which is not founded on the Gospel. Mr.
Warren declares himself not only a moralist and a
Christian, but a divine and a scholar. As he will
do nothing that he does not find in the New Tes-
tament, he very properly devotes himself to the
study and understanding of that volume. The re-
sult of bis piety and single-mindedness, his harning
and diligence, is that marriage is indissoluble ; that
laws professing to absolve it are inoperative and
sacrilegious ; that Queen Victoria, the Lords, and
the Commons, about half-a-dozen times a year
perform a blasphemous and sacrilegious farce, pre-
tending to disunite those who must ever be one,
contrary to the law at England, in the face of the
Bible, in contempt of the Almighty, and in dis-
regard of Mr. Samuel Warren. _ _

We would not, however, do an injustice even to
Mr. Samuel Warren. He does not place such ab-
solute confidence in his own knowledge of the law,
his own scholarship, his own moral sense and theo-
logical acumen, but that he is ready to appeal to
" the Teachers of our Church." The learned and
subtle Doctors of the Anglican Communion to
whom this title is given are the nine thousand
clergy who, by means of railways and the penny
post, by circulars and central agitations, by much
use of horseflesh and shoeleather, and no doubt at a
great cost of other animal substances in this very
hot weather, have been induced to sign a Declara-
tion composed by some • ingenious politician
for the express purpose of mystifying and
committing them out of their depth. Mr. Warren
quotes the document in extenso to prove tint
these nine thousand Teachers of the Church all
hold marriage to be indissoluble, and appeals
to us whether it is possible to fight against such a
cloud of authorities. It so happens, however, that
the reverend Secretary of the Declaration, the man
employed by its framers to push it about, receive
signatures, explain it, and mediate between the
higher and lower intelligences employed upon it,
has written to us most indignantly repudiating the
very construction put upon it by Mr. Warren, the
very doctrine far which he cites the nine thousand.
This gentleman says that the " Declaration " does
not declare marriage to be indissoluble. He and
Mr. Warren mast settle that matter between them,
for " Who shall setdecide when doctors disagree ?"
We confess ourselves unable to fathom the roguery
of a document which we believe to be simply a poli-
tical demonstration, and very much of a piece with
the opinion which Mr. Warren ascribes to Dr. Phil-
litnore--viz., that " he thought it ought to be the
principle of the law that marriage was indissoluble.i'
If this means anything at all, it means that for our
worldly convenience we ought to (*lase that to be

an obligation which is not an obligation—the very
practice most emphatically and terribly denounced
throu2,hout the New Testament—the very burden
so to speak, of the Evangelic and Apostolic dis-
courscs. For our own part, we coo not pretend to
improve much on the morality of the New Testa-
ment'. We leave that to Dr. Phillimore, Mr. S.
Warren, and the nine thousand teachers of the
Church.

We need scarcely say we have no great respect
for the intelligence, scholarship, or even the can-
dour of these nine thousand, in any high sense of
that word. But we will say why. What they de-
precate is the creation of " facilities" for divorce,
" unauthorised by Holy Scripture and by the law
and ritual of the Church." Now, the only
" facilities " threatened are the substitution of ju-
dicial for Parliamentary procedure ; th a is, ofj udges
sitting in a room on the West side of Wcs'minster-
Hall for the very same men, probably, sitting in a
room on the East side of the same Hall, in both
cases proceeding on the very same principles,
maxims, and precedents. These are the " facili-
ties," very awful, no doubt, but not of a nature to
be found particularly described either in Holy Scrip-
ture or in the law and ritual of the United Church.
In fact, it is as unreasonable to require that the
meisure under discussion should be found in the
Bible or Prayer-book as that the Victoria Tower,
or Big Ben, or the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms,
or the standing orders upon railway bills should be
found in those documents. So much for the sense
displayed in this declaration. Next for its scholar-
ship. The second clause begins :—" Remembering.,
also, that it is declared in the Word of God that
marriage with a divorced woman is adulterous."
We beg to assure the nine thougand clergymen that
what they are pleased to remember so positively
and distinctly is a downright untruth. It is nowhere
declared in the Word of God that marriage with a
divorced woman is adulterous. What is declared is
simple enough, and appeals, like all the morality.
in Scripture, to ordinary good sense and good feel-
ing. It is, that whoever married the woman who
had been put away wantonly and causelessly, with
a bit of paper in her hand, containing a form of
words and a text or two declaring that she was at
liberty, did virtually commit adultery. All the
passages refer to one particular practice, to one par-
ticular form, expressly describel and indicated by
the words " put away"—as much a particular form
as that by which the Jews were in the habit of
avoiding their filial obligations on a pretended de-
votion of their wealth to the Temple. The term
which these gentlemen have translated "a divorced
woman," as if it meant any woman divorced under
any circumstances, does not mean that, and it is a
gross misrepresentation to say that it does. It
means a woman put away in one particular form
and manner, then much in vogue, and resting on
one of the traditions or abusive interpretations of
the law.

If the Bill did really affect the clergy—if it
really altered their position with regard to the
marriage of divorced persons, it would be time to
consider their claim to relief. But the fact is that
every year several couples of divorced persons are
launched on society to be re-married by somebody
or other. They might fall to the lot of any clergy-
man, yet it so happens we never heard of any
objection to perform the service, nor do we believe
such an objection has yet been shown. The clergy
are only too desirous to marry as many as they
can, without any inquiry at all, and taking the
word of the people themselves that there is no
obstacle to their union. There are numerous Acts
cf Parliament securing to particular churches the
marriages of large districts, like the old monopolies
compelling people to take their corn to one particular
mill, and the result is that in the metropolis,
and in many large towns, scores of couples are
married at once, all equally and utterly unknown
to the officiating minister. The grievance, then, as
far as we see, is not at all likely to be felt, even if
each clergyman's chance of having such a marriage
as that under question should be somewhat in-
creased. Were the grievance real, and were the
clergy now called on to do what they might not
have been called on to do before, there might be
a clause for the benefit of those who have taken
orders on a different understanding. Of course,
all who may henceforth become candidates for ordi-
nation will do so with their eyes open, and be
prepared to obey the law. The existing clergy, on
the proof of a real grievance, might be permitted
to make a formal protest before the first day of
the opera ion of the new Act, and be allowed the
benefit of that protest till, on further considera-
tion, they saw reason to withdraw it. There are
things to be said for and against such a provision,
but it would give no inconvenience, for there
will always be clergymen ready to perform the
ceremony, and it might deprive some wrongheads,
or blunderheads, of a very foolish opportunity of
making a disturbance.

METROPOLITAY BOARD OF WORKS.

A special meeting of-the Board was held yester-
day in the Council Chamber, Guildhall, to receive
and consider the report of Capt .in D. Galton, R E. _
Mr. James Simpson, C.E., and Mr. T. E.. Black-
well, C.E., on the plan of main drainage submitted
to Sir Benjamin Hall by the Board on the 22d of
December last. Mr. Thwaitea was in the chair.
The rep-rt which consists of 45 folio pages of
printed matter, was read in extenso by Mr. Wo
rych, a-sstecl by Mr. Bazdgette, and it occupied
these gentlemen nearly three hours in reading it.
Mr. CARPMAEL wished to propose a motion on
the subject of the report. The case stood thus :
The Metrepolitan Board had submitted a plan to
Sir B. Hall as First Commissioner of her Majesty's
Works,. The Board therefore could not take up
any new scheme until their own plan had been de-
cided upon by the Government. • It wasimportant
to bear in mind that the report which had been
read did not purport to contain any plan which had
received the approval of Sir Benjamin Hall. It
was merely toe suggestion of the three referees,
and, for aught he kne Sir Benjamin Hall might
ignore their plan in the same manner as he had
ignored the plan of that Board. It had taken a
long time to read the report, but practically the
changes proposed might be expressed in a few
minutes. It was not proposed by the referees to
interfere with the plan adopted by the Board in're-
gard to the -upper level sewer on the north, nor
with regard to the low level sewer on the south
side of the Thames. The first alteration suggested
was an extension of the plan proposed by the
Board. It was said that the Board did not make
a sufficient provision for rain-fall, or give a suffi-
cient supply of water to the inhabitants to enable
the extra quantity of sewage to be carried away.
They also said that that the engineer of the Board
did net make provision for so large an area as
might be provided for simply by gravitation. But
by the plan of Mr. Bazalgette it appeared that he
had arrived at what he believed b be the maximum
area that could be dealt with by gravitation only.
The referees disagreed front the propriety of having
an outfall at B* ; and proposed iu -place of that
to carry off the sewage by two open reservoirs
or canals, which together were to be 76 feet in
width and about 37 miles in length. These canals
were to be uncovered, except when they came to
any town or bridge. They also proposed to dilute
the sewage by pumping water out of the Thames
into these open xeservoirs from Plumpstead on the
one side, and Barking on the other, and thus
cause it to flow on in a centinued stream to Sea
Reach and the Creak, whence it would be poured
into the river, and there be mixed with such a
quantity of water as to render it inoffensive to any
one. The country at large, and the metropolis in
particular, ought to kuow that while the one great
purpose in all the works of the Board war to
cover up the whole sewage drain, the plem sug-
gested by the gentlemen to whom the question
had been referred by the First Commissioner was
that the sewage should be carried nearly 20 miles
on each side of the river in open concentrated
streams. The hon. member then moved the fol-
lowing resolution :
" That, id acknowledging the receipt of Sir Benjamin
Hall's communication of the 31st of July, he be requested
to furnish this Board with such plans and sections as may
have been prepa el by Captain Gaiton and Messrs. Simp-
son and Blackwell, to explain the recommendations, and
that ho be informed that this Board, having on the 22d
of December last submitted to him plans for the intercep-
tion of the metropolitan sewage through covered sewers at
an estimated cost of 2,836,6001, regard with great appre-
hension any proposition to exceed the sum of 5,437,2351.,
of which it appears a sum of 3,141,3001. is proposed to be
expended in the formation of two open sewage canals and
works connected therewith, amounting together to 76 feet
in width and about 37 miles in length, it being the duty
of this Board to cover all existing open sewers, and not to
create farther nuisances."
The motion having been seconded,
Mr. TURNER m wed as an anaendmen
" That the receipt of the report be acknowledged, and
that it be requested that the plans and sections therein
referred to be forwarded to the Board."
Mr. DENNIS was sorry that Mr. Carpmael should
have so prematurely pronounced an opinion on the
report of the three eminent men to wham the plan
of the board had been referred by the First Com-
missioner. He hoped the board would wait, and
have the whole details before them previous to their
pronouncing au opinion on a subject of such
magnitude.
Mr. Deputy HARRISON disapproved both the
original motion-and the amendment. Sir B. Hall
had sent them a report, and had stated that cer-
tain plans wore being prepared, and would be
ready in a few days. Surely it was not necessary
for the board to pass a resolution calling upon Sir
Benjamin Hall to send those plans. He would, no
doubt, afford the board every information that was
furnished to him by the Engineers to whom he had
referred the plan submitted to him by the board.
Mr BIDGOOD observed that, for aught they knew,
plan 13* might yet come back from Sir B. Hall ap-
proved ; the board ought therefore to take care net
to put themselves in a false position by asking Sir
B. Hall fir additional plans. At all events ho
hoped the Board would not do anything to lead
the public to think that there existed any hostility
between, the board and the First Commissioner of
her Majesty's Works. The object of all was a
thorough drainage of London. Plan B* was at
present before Sir B. Hall, and until the boar I had
received an answer from km—yes or no—to that
plan the board ought not to take any other B.ep.
Mr. H. L. TAYLOR sail that, notwithstanding
the great respect he entertained for his friend Mr.
Carpmael, he thought that on this occasion he had
been some adiat premature. If h's friend had
had listened to him this discussion would have been
avoided. His friend possessed the advantage of
having seen the report, but it was hardly fair to the
other members of tee b. ,ard who had only just heard
it read to bring forward a proposition binding them
to the expression of an opinion in regard to a docu-
ment which they had had no opportunity to con-
sider. He did not wish to prejudge the report,
though he had no doubt it could be well pulled
to pieces. It was his firm belief that Sir B.
Hall had, iu the course he had pursued, exceeded
his duty. He ought and must deal with the plan
B. He had no right to hang up that plan and
let loose on the world a plan of his own to see how
the Times took it up. He had no right to do that.
Sir B. Hall was a public' servant, receiving public
money, and had a public duty to perform, and he
had to discharge himself from plan- B* before. en-
tering upon any other plan. (Hear, hear.) He
would give the right hon. baronet time enough ;
they had no right to pu,-11 him into a corner ; but,
though suspending all judgment on plan .135, the
moment his own engineers presented their report
he hastened to gat it into the Observer, his own
paper, and thereby furnished food for the Times,
and thus a condensation of .the report got before
the world. He did not wish, however, to be im-
portunate with the right hon. baronet. Let him
have time to send to that board all he considered
necessary to illustrate the important subject on
which they had 4to decide. Unanimity on this
subject was most desirable ; he therefore hoped
that his friend Mr. Carpmael and also Mr. Turner
would withdraw both the original motion and the
amendment, in order that they might adopt a pro.
position for promoting and circulating the report,
to be taken into consideration on a future day.
Mr. DOULTON saw no difficulty in adopting the
resolution of Mr. Carpmael. The proposed plan
was, in effect, to have an open ditch on each side
of the river Thames for 20 miles • and no discus-
sion of details could elucidale the plan more clearly
than that simple statement. It was a plan con-
trary not only to the spirit but to the very letter
of the Act of Parliament, which said that all sewers
with which the board had to deal should be covered
over. Having that act befoie them, they ought at
once to express a decided opinion against any plan
which proposed the construction of open sewers.
Every day, however, convinced him of the neces-
sity of something being done, but it must not be
that which was embodied is this plan, for, how-
ever excellent the men might be who proposed it,
it was a plan which, if adopted, would perpetuate
an intolerable nuisance.

Mr. OFFOR was of opinion that the Board ought
not to come to any decision until they had the
whole of the maps and sections before them.

Mr. Bows condemned the adoption of open
sewers, and hoped the Board. would unanimously
oppose the proposition.
Mr. NICHOLAY thought nothing would be gained
by hurrying on the question, and that they should
wait until the whole plans were before them.
Mr. DIFFANGER opposed both the motion and
the amendment. He regarded the report as the
answer of Sir B. Hall to plan B*. (" No ! no !")
There appeared to him to be two objections to the
plan of the referees—first, that Of having open
sewers ; and, secondly, that of dealing with areas
beyond the jurisdiction of the Board. It was pro-
posed to them to sanction the expenditure of six
millions of money, which, of course, meant ten
millions before the thing was done. Now, he would
assume that proposition to ba Sir B. Hall's answer
to the plan they had proposed, and he would sug-
gest that they should reply to Sir B. Hall, and
say to him,—" If we agree with this report, are
you prepared to bring in a bill to give us power to
,
deal with an area beyond our jurisdiction, and to
expend a sum of money to an amount 1111.,h we I
feel we ought not to expend." (Hear, hear.)
Mr. CARPMAEL, in reply, said that he was
anxious to relieve the Board from the imputaVon
of delay, which had been unjustly cast upon them
by Sir B. Hall. At the same time he was not de
sirous to preis his proposition unreasonably, and

he would thorefore leave it with the 131-).ard to dis-
pose of hi 3 m tion as they pleased.
The to Ot .0 ► was finally vdthdrawn.
Mr. Doputy HARRlsoN.thon moved

- •
" That the receipt of the report of the eogineers, Capt.
D. Gal tor, and Messrs. Sirupscn and Bt.:Awed be ac-
knowledged, and on the maps and upon lices mentioned
in that report being completed, the whole be printed, an I
copies thereof be sent to ea::11 member of the Boar", and
that the chairman be requested thereurrm to call a meet-
ing of the members of the Board to consider the plan, and
report on a day not earlier than seven days after the dis-
tribution of such copies."
Aftr souse dism,sion the motion was adopted,
and the Board adjourned.

THE INDIA MAILS via MARSBILLES.

The Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles has ad-
dressed the following, It ter to Mr. Grepon, Presi-
dent of the Etst India Association :
" Sir,-L-The Chamber of Commerce of Marseilles was
naturally much annoyed at the complaints in the Eng.
lish newspapers of the alleged delay in the transmission
of the India mail via Marseilles. If we are to believe
an article in the Times, when the mail reaches our port,
instead of being immediately forwarded, it is kept until
the next usual mail train starts, which causes a loss of
nearly a day.

" Director of the Post-2ffice whom we questioned
respecting this complaint, gave us the following explana-
tion, which we lose no time in forwarding, and which we
hope will be satisfactory.
" The director has thought it necessary to give, first,
a table of the ordinary mail trains (express.)
" Thu's, two trains leave Marseilles daily for Paris in
connection with the Northern Railway, which takes the
mails to England.

Their hours are as follows :
"Aarseilles Departure... 10 0 a.m. ... 10 30 p.m.
" Paris j Arrival 6 0 a.m. ... 6 0 p.m.
Doparture 8 0 a.m. 730 p.m.
" Calais j Arrival 330 p.m. 3 0 a.m.
1 Departure according to date.
"D0ver.......... Arrival
" London Arrival LE 0 p.m. 9 0 a.m.
" Of these two mails, the first is delivered in London
at 6 a.m. A difference of 12 hours is the country (dans
les provinces) means from the date of arrival a difference
of four hours in the delivery.
" The same may be said for those localities which re-
ceive two mails daily. It even happens—and it has con-
tinually happened at Marseilles—that two mails arriving
at an interval of 10 hours have been delivered together.
" The hour of departure of the regular mail trains be-
ing well known, organised beforehand with a view to
speed and prompt delivery, it is clear that whenever the
India mail • arrives in time to catch the ordinary mad
express it is the quickest conveyance. When the steamer
arrives at an hour when the mails cannot take advantage
of the ma 1 train, steps are taken to accelerate their
transmission, whenever it can be so managed as to pro-
cure an earlier deltvcry.

" The morning mail reaches London in 37 hours, and
arrives there at night.. If the steamer reaches Marseilles
after 10 a.m., and before the departure of the ordinary
train which leaves at 12 40, a special train is sent to catch
the mail train. This has always been done. But if the
steamer arrives at 2 p.m., the mail is kept till 10 p.m.
for the 10 30 train. In fact, it woul.l be impossible for a
special train leaving four or five hours after the ordinary
express to catch it in good time, and the mails would
have to wait at Ca'ais just as long as they would remain
at Marseilles, as the beat would have left, Supposing
the mails were conveyed by special train to Calais, by
special steamer from Calais to Dover, by special train
from Dover to London, they would not reach their de-
stination—premising that the telegraph had ordered all
the line to be kept clear—before 4.30 or 5 a.m. It is
true it would be in time for the-first London delivery.
For the short space of two hours, and ly extraordinary
tnean,, the mail delayel four hours at its departure from
Marseilles might be procured the benefit of a three
hours' earlier delivery in Landon. But should the result
be six hours at Marseilles, no advantage whatever would
be acquired by employing special trains and special
steamers. The mails would only roach London one hour
before the ordinary evening ma.
"Tee organisation of special trains is, moreover, so
difficult, owing to the complicated traffic upon the three
Huts f railwey upon which the mails have to be cone
veyed, that unforeseen delays which may be experienced
by a special train must be taken into account.
" By sending a special train in time to catch, if possi•
ble, the ordinary morning express, the French Poet-office
does all that can he reasonably expected of it, and when
it allows the mails which come by the steamers after
noon to remain at Marseilles till 10 p.m, it only (flakes a
difference of three hours in the time of arrival at their
destination ; and, if it does so, it is because the time of
the day at which that delay takes place may be consi-
dered as unimportant. But it even strives to obviate
this delay as we have shown for it awl iys special traing
whenever there is a chance of success.
"If this explanation is exact as regards the morning
mail, might not the same measures be taken for the mails
by the steamers thatarrive after 10 p m, I
"To this question the director of the Post-office re-
plies that within the limit of from three to four hours,
with special trains and special steamers, an attempt
might be made to catch or follow close the ordinary
train;wail but be adds, that the opportunity has not
once presented ittelf in the five years that an English
steamer has arrived between the hours of midnight and
2 a.m. The usual entrance takes place at daybreak.
Where, moreover, would be the advantage of a special
train ? There are more difficulties attached to sending
special trains by night than in the day time ; it is more
oifficult to keep the line clear ; clatys are more inevit-
able.
" Such are the involuntary causes which prevent a
more speedy transmission of the ladian
" We have made you acquainted with the observa-
tions of the director of the Poet-office, with complete
frankness ; we need not add that we are quite willing
to hear yours, and that we will at once adopt any mea-
sures you may think advisable to accelerate the, trans-
mission of the mails. It is our sincere wish to give you
every assistance in our power, so that the transmission
of the India mails through France-may leave nothing to
be desired.

"In this communication behold only a proof of the
desire we entertain to assure relations which must tend
to the mutual advantage of our respective countries.
" We are, &c.,
"S. GERFAN,
"The Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.
" Marseillee, June 27."