The Sun.
London, England, 1850-02-25 00:00:00

01:Jeatiltg Inl4

LONDON, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1850.

Mr. Diaasua's motion for a revision of the p oor-
laws, by the transfer of the establishment charges,
and the charges for the relief of casual poor to the
general revenue of the country, has forcibly directed
the public attention to the injustice and inequality of
the existing system . As we have already shown, it
was originally intended that the owners of personal
property should contribute fairly, in proportion to
their means, to the support of the destitute poor.
It was justly conceived that the poverty of
the country constituted the first charge
upon its property, and that the burden should be
equitably distributed on all inhati'ants of the district
who were in the possession and enjoyment of accu-
mulated and realised property of any description what-
soever. The payment of poor-rates was a great social
duty, from which no person of sufficient ability could
be discharged or exonerated. In those days, how-
ever, personal property was comparatively small
in amount and of a character that could
easily be concealed, so that an opportunity existed for
unconscientious persons of defrauding the other rate-
payers by withholding any return of their personal
property. The value of lands and buildings could
easily be ascertained, but not so of mere personal pro-
perty, of money, or securities for money. It was, there-
fore, fuund convenient to exempt the latter description
of property, in order to avoid the disputes and liti-
gation that would otherwise unquestionably arise,
and the heavy legal expenses consequent thereon.
Since•that period, however, a new machinery has
been brought into operation by which the income
arising from personal property can be ascertained
and made to defray its fair proportion of the na-
tional expenditure. But no movement has taken
place to make it contribute towards the relief of the
poor. The unconscientious and illegal frauds that were
perpetrated in a former age have been permitted to exo-
nerate the present posseasors of personal property from
the charges for which they were legally and equitably
responsible. It is a well-known maxim of law that
" no time can sanctify a fraud ;" and it must, there-
fore, be manifest that the parties have no title to a
continuance of the exemption which they have so
long enjoyed; and that they could no more complain,
if now compelled to act properly, than the descend-
ants or representatives of a robber, if obliged to make
restitution of stolen goods.
Mr. DISRAELI, was, however, greatly mistaken in the
nature of the remedy which he suggested. He
clearly and distinctly exposed the existing injustice,
and the consequent injury to the. land (including
houses and buildings in the term), by making the
entire poor-rates fall upon what represented but little
more than one-third of the accumulated capital of
the country. But he would correct that evil by one
of still greater magnitude. He did not propose
to make the owners of personal property
contribute their fair proportion of the charges
but to bring in a new class of contribu•
tors, and to tax the industrious and labouring
classes fur the support of those who :were but little
worse off than themselves. This grave mistake most
probably led to the rejection of the motion, which
might have been carried with the general approbation
of the country, had it been limited to inaking every
description of property contribute rateably to the
poor-law expenditure.
A proposition of a more comprehensive and far
more equitable character has jut been put forward by
a gentleman whose family have long been
intimately connected with, and interested in,
the welfare and prosperity of agriculture.
The Hon. DUDLEY PELHAM, M.P., brother of the
Earl of YARBOROUGH, has published a pamphlet,* in
which the question is mcst ably and fairly argued,

and suggestions offered which, although some modi-
fications should be made before they were adopted by
the Legislature, 3et form the basis on which the
subject may be equitably arranged. The Hor. Gen-
tleman has had considerable experience of the working
of the poor-law code in two distinct parts of the king-
dom, in which the practice is widely different—in Lin-
colnshire, where the evils of the existing law of set-
tlement are painfully apparent, and in the Isle of
Wight, where for nearly eighty years there has prac-
tically been " union settlement" and " union ma-
nagement," and where the advantages of the system,
with one exceptional evil, are fully appreciated. The
exceptional evil, so justly complained of by the Hon.
Gentleman, is the retention of parochial averages,
calculated on the previous averages of expenditure and
the alteration in the value of the property to
be assessed. This grievance, which operates most in-
juriously to the less wealthy districts, placing the
heaviest burdens on those least competent to butt. it,
might, however, be remedied without considerable
difficulty.

Mr. PELHAM strongly objects to any transfer of
the rates to the Consolidated Fund, and declares that
all the schemes for that purpose are defective. He
desires to maintain local management, and a general
interest in keeping down the expenditure. lie insists
that the poor-law itself, which in its present form
he declares to be most prejudicial to the working
classes—to the employers of labour, whether, in
town or country, and ultimately to the ratepayers
and the whole community—must be amended before
any beneficial change can be effected.

The first reform which he advocates is the " total
abolition of the law of settlement," the monster
grievance which cripples the energies and paralyses
the exertions of the able-bodied poor—which leads to
the closing of parishes, and the local congestion of the
population in the poorer districts, with all its atten-
dant evils and demoralising results. This great change
would confer on the industrious classes the greatest
possible benefit ; it would give " free trade in labour"
which is now fettered and embarrassed by a variety
of partial and oppressive restrictions. It would en-
able both the employers and employed to suit them-
selves with what was best suited to their wants and
exigencies. In place of the former being obliged to
employ careless and inefficient men, merely because
they have obtained a footing in the parish, he could
get the best workmen, who would better discharge the
duties assigned to them, while the latter could
carry their only capital—their labour—to the best
market without let or hindrance. This most im-
portant suggestion is well worthy of public attention,
and we trust that it may speedily be acted on, by
which the intertes of all parties and classes would
be promoted and advanced.

The next point put forward by the llonourable
Gentleman is, that " union chargeability and union
management should be established, with an equal
union poundage-rate throughout the entire district.'
This would be a manifest improvement on the exist-
ing system, which operates so unequally and partially,
placing the heaviest burdens on those who are least
able to sustain it. We should go even further than Mr.
PELHAM, and recommend a national rate, by which
the charge would be equally distributed throughout
the entire country, and every man should contribute
secundum statum et facultates. We would, however,
illingly accept the proposition as an instalment cf
justice, which would speedily lead to the full accom-
plishment of our wishes.
Mr. PELHAM then proposes that the general con-
tribution should be levied by means of a direct tax, on
the basis of the property and income-tax, which thus
might be adapted to the local management in the
unions. Fundholders and others, who now enjoy an
unjust exemption, would be obliged to discharge their
fair liabilities.

We see but one objection to this, that it would
make the profits of industry contribute as much as
accumulated capital. We have already shown the
partial and oppressive operation of the income-tax in
that respec*, and we would decidedly object to its
further extension ; but free the profits of industry from
the charge, and there can be no possible reason why
the other parties assessed to the property-tax should
not contribute.

We heartily commend this very interesting and
useful pamphlet to all who desire that the vexate
questio of the poor-rates should receive prompt and
satisfactory solution.

Among all those sanitary requirements which are
at present originating popular agitation and justify-
ing the interposition of the Executive., the necessity
of an improved system of drainage is the most essen-
tial and importunate. Even with the elaborate
arrangements now in operation throughout the me-
tropolis, it is a notorious fact that the results of the
existing plans are of the most deleterious and perni-
cious character. The air inhaled and the beverage
imbibed by the vast population of London are poisoned
by the, impurities squandered into the river flow-
ing through the capital of England. Squandered,
we say, because the very materials which are thus
permitted to infect the atmosphere with disgusting ex-
halations,-and to contaminate the water of the Thames
with accumulated putrescence—if only properly col-
lected and distributed might very readily be rendered
the means of diffusing throughout the island an extra-
ordinary amount of fertilization. To dream, there-
fore, of perpetuating an evil of this twofold character
—an evil which, while it multiplies disease, and per-
petually increases the mortality, drains from the agri-
cultural regions of the country a certain source of
enrichment would not only be false economy
but the utmost extravagance of temerity. It would
be false economy because of its wasting such
inestimable means for enhancing the wealth of the
community. It would be the utmost extravagance
of temerity, because by a continuation of these prac-
tices we should be arming Death with new weapons
of destruction. Hence-it is, that as a matter affect-
ing the health, the pockets, and the comfort of the
people, the contrivance of some novel scheme of
drainage for the metropolis has come at last to be
recognised as one of the most conspicuous wants of
its inhabitants.

To purify the Thames, to remove so many evils
from the capital of the empire, and weohnfielseretldiuloietiynngoo alltoof
this to convey the materials of
mine one of the chief
tt
hh
ee
focroengtoi
hugo ucso
Bpi
dr
eo
rvi
a nt
icoeess,
hheiteso,
aspirations of the people, and one of the principal am-
bitions of the Sewers Commissioners. To this end
the Government empowered those Commissioners
very recently to receive plans for the better removal of
the sewage of London from its neighbourhood. A
vast number of schemes having this object in view
were submitted to their consideration, but the whole
of these same schemes, without one solitary excel,.
tion, were soon after their transmission decisively re-
jected.diiferen Sincedescsritihoenn
hasanotherappeared, which, from plan of a totally
its facility of adoption, its simplicity of arrangement,
its applicability to the existing system, and its
effectual combination into a single focus of so many
and such apparently contradictory requirements,
challenges the attention of every man really interested
in the cause of sanitary innovation. The author of
the proposed scheme, Mr. HENRY STOTHERT, of Bath,
has already unfolded his proposal to the Sewage Com.
naissioners in the form of an explanatory pamphlet," a
copy of which has fallen into our hands
within a brief interval after its publication.
Before touching upon the plan described in this
pamphlet, it will be as well to observe that the
necessity for a change in the present mode of draining
the metropolis reduces itself simply to this—the reten-
tion of the sewage from the river, and the convey-
ance of it to localities where it may be rendered
available for distribution. Now among all
the propositions which have as yet ema-
nated from the engineering abilities of Eng-
land, with the exception of the remarkable
plan just submitted by its author, Mr. STOTHERT, to
publio consideration,the only scheme at all worthy of
notice is the one whereby it is
suggested that the
sewage of London shall be emptied into a capacious
tunnel on either side of the Thames, to be conducted
by those channels to some convenient spot in the
eastern environs of the capital, there to be carried
away by branch drains into the fields requiring the nu-
trition of manure. Hundreds of individuals have long
pondered over the practicability ofsuch an arrangement,
but all to no purpose, from the interposition of the

obstacles very clearly enumerated by Mr. STOTHERT
in the preliminary page of his pamphlet. The first
objection he declares to be, that the capacity of the
tunnel which would be requisite on the City side of
the river " would be so great as to be almost insur-
mountable, endangering the foundations of the
bridges as it passes," and from one extremity to the
other, from Vauxhall-bridge to the East India Docks,
necessitating a lamentable destruction of property.
Another objection is the liability of the tunnel
to choke, in consequence of the very slight and in-
sufficient fall from the western to the eastern ter-
minus ; and yet another, and that too, perhaps, the
most insuperable, the extraordinary expense of such
a bold and gigantic undertaking. "But," asks Mr.
STOTHERT, " can any other feasible mode be sug-
gested for carrying away the sewage ?" His reply
to this inquiry is distinct and instantaneous—" Yes,
without any question." What this mode of drainage
is we cannot more briefly or more lucidly explain
than in the words of its projector.
His plan for carrying away the sewage of the
metropolis he describes to be as follows :
"By dividing the distance between Chelsea and the
East India Docks into compartments; each compart-
ment to have a separate Cornish steam engine, with cess-
pool and culvert on one or both sides, running into it,
into which culvert the drains or sewers in that corn
partmeut will intersect and empty themselves.
" Each steam engine, with its own cesspool, culvert,
and drains, must be of sufficient power to raise the con-
tents thirty-six feet high, at which height it will flow
over into a vertical pipe that will communicate with a
horizontal one, that will pass by each engine, receiving
its contents, and conducting the same away to convenient
localities for its deposit.
" Wherever engines are fixed, they will be connected
with a cesspool cf suitable dirne,,sions, into which cess-
pool the main culverts running nearly parallel a ith the
river, will empty themselves.
" These main culverts should be large enough to receive
nil the drains that empty themselves into the Thames at
present, so that the contents at all the present sewers or
drains in each division will find their way into the cess-
pools attached to the engines.
" The cesspools should be provided with a line of
valves opening outwards, above high water mark, more
than equal to one.-half the area of the main culverts, so
as to provide against heavy storms of rain, or flushing."
By this plan it must be perceptible that the Thaines
would be preserved from contamination without in-
terfering with existing arrangements any further than
by closing up for ever the extremities of the drains
and sewers at present emptying themselves into tha
river. The sewage would thereupon be no longer
squandered into a water channel subject to tidal in-
fluences—exhaling noxious vapours into the atmo-
sphere of the capital, and imparting poisonous quali-
ties to the beverage of its inhabitants. Nor would
these be the only advantages : the richest description
of manure would be placed at the disposal -of the
agriculturists ; and, besides all this, au enormous
profit might be obtained beyond the whole of the ex-
penses incurred by the required alterations, and be-
yond the annual working of the entire system. The
calculations made by Mr. STOTHERT, in regard to
the last-mentioned particular, are of bewildering
magnitude, and yet at the same time of unimpeach-
able accuracy. For example, the sewage matter of
London has been proved to exceed 2,000,000 of tons
annually. Experience has shown that 100 tons of
such manure is sufficient for en acre of ground an-
nually. According to the statement of the Sewage
Manure Company of Londor, it appears that they ob-
tain 41. per acre, although their material is very im-
perfectly distributed. From these facts it is esti-
mated that 1,000,000 of acres, at the very least, could
be readily manured from the accumulation made out
of these 2,000,000 tons of sewage matter—that,
distributing this material at the rate of V. per
100 tons, per acre, no less than 4,000,0001.
might he realised, and that deducting therefrom the
annual cost of working and four per cent. interest on
outlay, amounting, says Mr. STOTHERT, to 198,1551,
an annual profit of 2,801,845/., would remain over and
above the expenditure. These calculations, it must
be observed, are not the fancies of some idle day-
dreamer, but the estimate made by a bold and able en-
gineer. Grand'as the whole scheme is, we see no token
of its impracticability : everything, on the con-
trary, tends to demonstrate the possibility of, its
immediate application to existing arrangements. If
carried out it will prove of incalculable advantage to
the metropolis and to the provinces, and will secure to
Mr. HENRY STOTHERT, its projector, that gratitude
which is ever due to a great public benefactor.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of Saturday
and yesterday.
The lists of candidates for Paris have been at length
announced. The Democratic candidates are Lieut.
De Flotte, formerly a lieutenant in the navy, and
one of the amnestied of June; M. Vidal, the ex-
secretary to Louis Blanc's commission at the Luxem-
bourg ; and M. Carnet, who was Minister of Public
Instruction under the Provisional Government. M.
Emile de Girardin was proposed as a candidate at the
preliminary meeting of the Democratic electors, but
was rejected.
The Union Electorale has put out its provisional
list, to be reduced to three at the preparatory meet-
ing. They are, General de la Ilitte, M. Foy, son of
General Foy; General d'Arbonville, M. Persil, ex.
Minister ; M. Thayer, Count Chabrol, Major de
Laborde, M. Marbeau, founder of the charitable
system of Creches; the Due de Padoue, and M. Eck,
bronze-founder; M. Bonjean The Napoleon de-
clares that the Bonapartists accept General de la
Hitte, M. Bonjean, and the Due de Fadoue, and will
not support any others.
There was an animated discussion in the National
Assembly on Saturday on one of the clauses of the
Public Education Bill, in 'the course of which the
" pointless epigrams" of M. THIERS procured for
him an indignant protest against his wilful perver-
sions of fact from General CAVAIGNAC, and a dignified
rebuke from M. LAMARTINE, who took the opportu-
nity of again proclaiming his allegiance to, his admie
ration of, and his faith in the Republic. The discus-
sion arose on an amendment proposed by M. Boux •
EAT to the 65th article of the Public Instruction
Bill, for the purpose of excluding from the office of
schoolmaster any person belonging to a religious
congregation not recognised by the State, and for-
bidding any religious congregation to open a school
except by virtue cf a special law, and on condition
that the rules of the said religious congregation
should be made public. The Hon. Gentleman
acknowledged that his amendment was directed
against the Jesuits, who were not Frenchmen, and
were subject to a foreign power, and whose doctrines
and conduct were immoral, tyrannical, and unsuited
to the children of the citizans of a republic.
The Bishop of LA.NGRES opposed the amendment.
and eulogised the Jesuits, whom he would not consent
to offer up as a holocaust for sake of such a ransom
as this Education Bill. M. TRIERS declared that the
principle of liberty inscribed in the Constitution, for-
bade any exclusion even of Jesuits. The time, in
fact, was not come for treating the question, which
would be more in its proper place when the law
regarding associations should be brought before
them. After which M. TRIERS proceeded, amidst
great confusion, to say that if the Republic
had lasted for two years it was because
nothing which they (the Opposition) wished
for had been accomplished. If the Republic
still existed, it was because the men who had not
founded it had vowed to give it their support. If it
still existed, it was because, to use the words of one
of its chiefs, it bad not fallen into the hands of men
of disorder. If the Republic existed two years, it
was because the friends of order had combined to
support a Government they had not founded, and to
rescue it from the hands which made it. Once more
he would say, that if the Republic had lasted two
years, it was because the Opposition had been baulked
of its designs I and if the Republic should last
longer, it would be on the sole condition that the
same parties should not be allowed to govern.
General CAVAIGNAC then rose to protest against
the unfair construction which M. TRIERS had at-
tempted to put on the words which he (General
CAVAIGNAC) had formerly addressed to the men of
disorder and of violence, and for which he considered
that he was deserving of honour ; but he had no right
to apply them to the adversaries of the law under dis-
cussion. " When he applies the words I used,"l con-
cluded the General, " to those of whom spoke we
shall be agreed; but when he gives to them a signi•
fication which they have not—when he applies them
to those who believe the proposed law to be a bad
law, he uses arguments which are quite unworthy of
him." The General sat down ainidst loud cheering.
M, EMANUEL ARAGO and M. FAVRE having succes-
sively attacked M. TRIERS, the latter again rose to
explain, but he made matters worse by saying that
the moment was not yet come fur telling the whole
history of these unfortunate and fatal days of Febru-
ary, for such he would call them. Then the Left
shouted order, followed by the greatest tumult. At r
length he was heard to say, that in the eyes of those
who profited by the event such days were glorious
to him they were the contrary,-for they had wounded
him in his affections. This explanation brought up
M. LAMARTINE, who expressed his regret that M.
TRIERS should have taken advantage of the present
discussion to utter pointless and most sale epigrams
against the past. " We may," continued M. La-

MARTINE, " leave, without reply, the attacks which
we have just heard, and which we read every day in
the journals against the institutions which govern our
country, for the arnecracy is sufficiently strong, has
a sufficient hold on the future to disdain epigrams.—
(Cheers.) It is not by mewls of epigrams that go-
vernments are destroyed and monarchies restored.—
(Renewed cheering.) Men of wit make epigrams,
the people make revolutions —(Bravo) Gentlemen,
I should be the most cowardly of men, if after
the honour which fell to me, two years since, an
honour for which I neither conspired nor sought—
(Cheers) —I did not come forward now to bear, to
the revolution of February, that homage which it
merits.—(Cheers.) This day is the eve of the anni-
versary of that revolution, and if it does not require
any of us to stifle honourable regrets, it at least
ought to command, on the part of those who enter-
tain them, a respectful silence.—(Cheers.) Yes ! no
doubt those days on which blood flows are always
fatal days. But the days of the morrow, those en
which the Republic of the democracy went forth, I
will call them in the face of the world, glorious, days.
—(Cheers.) Why are they glorious ? Because,
after having gained the victory, the people covered
its enemies with its strength." At the conclusion
the whole of the Left rose en masse and saluted the
orator with cries of " Vire la Republique !" On a
division, the amendment of M. BOUIIZAT was re-
jected by 450 to 148. The Minister of the Interior
announced that there would be seats reserved et
Notre Dame for the Members of the Assembly dc-
siring to take part in the religious ceremony for the
victims of February, and the Assembly separated at
eight o'clock in great agitation.
The Moniteur du Soir contradicts the reports whipb
were in circulation with regard to an alleged outbreak
at Rouen.

The Corsaire says that the PRESIDENT of the
Republic will, immediately after the elections, male
his long-talked of excursion in the smith of France.
The Procureur of the Republic of the Seine has
given orders for the strict execution of the law
of the 10th December, 1830, which interdicts the
posting up of any bills treating of political matters.
The report of 21.. CHARLES DrIPIN, on the Bill for
regulating the comerce of Algeria with Frayce and
foreign countries, has been distributed to the Assem-
bly. It recommends that foreign produce imported
into Algeria shall be subject to the same protective
duties as if they ,vere imported into France by the
ports of the Mediterranean. The committee proposes
also, by a special article, to encourage foreign vessels
to take in return cargoes of Algerian produce--by
modifying the tonnage dues in their favour. Urgency
is demanded for the Bill.

Letters from Smyrna of the 6th state that the
French squadron was still anchored at Mosconissi,
and would shortly return to Smyrna.
The President of the Assembly, the Ministers, and
a deputation of the Assembly, attended yesterday
Divine service, in commemoration of the Revolution
of February, in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Paris
was profoundly tranquil. It was not likely that this
tranquillity would be disturbed.

'Tie Five per Cents were done yesterday in the
Passage de l'Ouiera at 96f. 25c.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE. FEB. 23.
. . _ .

f 'Boulogne and Amiens, 71(?, ex div.—East Indian, 5
Northern of France, 1414—Rouen and Havee,

SPAIN.

1111drid journals of the 19th have arrived.
The Spanish Cortes were prorogued on the 18th.
The President of the Counci►, in grand uniform, an-
nounced to the Senate and Chamber cf Deputies that
her MAJESTY has ordered him to communicate the
following decree :
"In conformity with the prerogatives which are ac-
cordol to me by Art 26 of the Constitutioa, and in ac-
cordance with my Council of Ministers, I decree—thst
the sittings of the present session shall be and remain
suspended. Signed the QUEEN, and counter signed by
all the Ministers."

Immediately after this the two Chambers broke up.
Tne Corps Diplomatique waited on the QUEEN, on
the evening of the 17th, and the POPE'S Nuncio, in
her name, delivered an address congratulating her
MAJESTY and Spain on her interesting situation. The
QUEEN returned a suitable reply.
MADRID BOLSA, FEB. 19.—Three per Cents., 29, ;
FiVe per Cents., 12 15-16, both paper. Exchange on
London, 50 30 money.