The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-22 00:00:00

conferred was granted in endless perpetuity tl all the
Ae;ii_popei, andThs. who loight c;1!m,
as t-.Fumporary occupants of the SC,3 (,f Ro:ne, a pretended
u
spiritual flesnt from this highly distii.gui,:thed Apstle.
But, if this comrais.sion really conferred any spiritual su-
preinicy, like thAt subsequently usurped by the 1, ,man
Pontiffs, how did it, happen that rho ii-dividual so uxal!ed
above I..ia colleagues should have been held amenable to
their cnisures? And yet we read in the 12'1 chapter of
Acts, that

" When Pact. Wa3 come up to Jcrugalem they that
were of the circumcision contended with him, saying,
' Thou wen test into men uncircumcised and did eat with
them.' "

And Peter, recognizing their authority, entered into a
full juoification of his conduct.
Will Pio None, who pretends to be the Apostolic suc-
cessor of St. Peter, bat who, unlike the Apostles of old,
ran gallantly away in the piebald livery of a footman,
from the imaginary honours of a martyrdom, give an
equally apostolic justification of his recent puerile at-
tempts at usurpation?
When the supposed claim of St. Peter to the spiritual
sopa.' macy of the Church, and his actual occupation of
the See of Rome us its Bishop, shall have bee❑ estab-
Hilted upon better evidence than the legendary traditions
f the Vatican, it will be sufficient time to inopire into
the cliiim of hereditary power pretended to have sprung
from it.—l am, Sir, &c.,
WILLIAM HAMILTON.
14, Octagon, Plymouth. ,

METROPOLITAN WATER SUPPLY
When the question of a metropolitan water supply
comes before Parliament next session, the first ele-
ment of discussion will be the nature and scope of
the plans brought forward by the Board of Health.
That board being, in fact,• an organ of Government,
its representations will be regarded as possessing a
weight propntioned to the position it occupies. In-
dividual projectors are standing aloof for a while, and
competing companies reserve their propositions until
Gwydyr-house has given utterance to its final re-
solve. On a social and sanitary measure of this mag-
nitude it was well to defer for a time the hopes of in-
terested or the proposals of speculative persons ; old
water companies and new would have been bidding
against one another for public favour, the one promis-
ing an impossible repentance, the other an impracti-
cable excellence ; every engine known in the warfare
of committee-rooms would hare been brought into
play ; the real character of a dozen different schemes
would have been disguised amidst the dust of the con-
flict; and, finally, either the most subtle advocacy would
have triumphed to the neglect of public considerations,
or a commission would have been appointed at the
close instead of the beginning. If some of these evils
have been avoided by the delegation of the matter to
the Board of Health, some yet remain in prospect, so
long as the intentions of Ministers remain doubtful.
When the Government assumed to themselves the
conduct of the preparatory steps they may be said to
have assumed the whole responsibility of the eventful
measure. If the wants of a population of 2,000,000
constitute a plea for inquiry, they constitute still more
a reason for consistent and definite action founded
upon such inquiry. The problem which was given
to the Board of Health to solve may be ssid to have
been,—ls there within reasonable distance of the me-
tropolis water of a quality and quantity sufficient for
the use, and favourable to the health, of the inhabi-
tants, and, if so, where ? Upon the answer made by
them to this question, one of the most important
measures of the forthcoming se,sion must de-
pend ; whether that measure come from the Mi-
nisterial benches or not, it is imperative that the
answer should be complete and satisfactory. At
present all we know is, that there are two plans in
cJnternplation, about neither of which the evidence is
perfect, one to procure a supply by draining a large
area of high ground, the other by uniting in a single
channel the waters of forty-five different springs, In
appearance one of these plans offers a larger, a purer,
and a cheaper supply than the other ; the only reason
for hesitation in accepting it is, that it has not yet
been placed in a position to come forward as the one
solution of our difficulty : its practical excellence has
not, in other words, been subjected as yet to tests
which could warrant the construction of a measure
upon it. In order that the absolute merits of one
plan over the other may be established before the
meeting of Parliament, and all doubts which could
assail an impartial or a reasonable mind be removed,
any resources necessary to such decision ought to be
placed at the disposal of the Board. Unless they are
enabled to bring a single definite proposition before
the House, with the requisite guarantees, their opera-
tions will have been merely the basis for a legion of
speculators to build upon, and the yery purpose of the
whole inquiry will be resigned.
There may be some ignorant or unwashed members
of society, some averse to all contact of the pure ele-
ment either within or without, who are indifferent to
the question at issue. There may be some lovers of
the microscope who would sacrifice anything for an
animalcule, some palates which require that their
water should smack of something, some few reckless
shareholders who
,make it a condition of their own
prosperity that men should swallow filth; but, beyond
these sections, there are not less than nine-tenths of
the inhabitants of London who view the future water
supply with all the anxiety which a question at once
_
sanitary and economical can command. There can
be no choice between good water and bad ; but, not
only is London water hard, vapid, charged with dele-
terious matter, animal, mineral, and vegetable, but it
is also ill distributed and expensive, there are an
immense number of houses without any water sup-
ply at all ; those which are supplied do not receive
on an average so much as health and cleanliness
demand, and those few which do receive sufficient pay
an enormous rate. The existing water companies
cannot or will not so far reduce their charges as to
extend the distribution and the quantity of their
supply, they cannot, if they would, change the quality
of their water without subjecting it to a process which
would enhance its expensiveness ; when they com-
pleted their machinery, a water supply was regarded
as merely a commercial question ; they sought, there-
fore, the cheapest source, and underbid one another,
not by presenting a purer, but a more defiled fluid
for our purchase. We are aware now that health,
cleanliness, and economy, depend not only on the
cheapness of water, i. e. upon the amount at com-
mand, but also upon the
quality. We naturally
demand whether it be possible to secure for our popu-
lation one of the first and greatest of blessings—
whether it be possible to secure it in such a way that
those who are now the most stinted shall be the most
cheaply supplied. It is because this want is some-
thing other than a commercial want, that Par-
liament can legitimately interfere as it has interfered.
Deferring to this circumstance, Government took the
divining rod in hand, and set out upon the investiga •
tion. Officers are appointed to scour the country, to
pierce into geological formations, to taste, and test,
and analyze the fluid, to measure its amount, to cal-
teouwlan.
te the facility and the expense of conducting it to
All London watches for the result with the
interest of persons who are to be relieved from a
nuisance, and endowed with a blessing at the same
time.
The principal merit in 11r. Napier's scheme is its
comprehensive character ; there has been antecedently
no one suggestion by which water at once so pure and
ample in quantity could be obtained ; no supply
coining fromone quarter could be devised except
upon some such comprehensive basis. There is
every reason to believe that there does not exist
within a moderate distance of London more
than one area which _could furnish the qua'ity
and amount of water which we require; we seem.
therefore, forced to the conclusion that either there
is no single method by which the whole metropolis
can be supplied now and prospectively on a better
principle than the one in use, or else that the one
method offers itself here. We are come to the end
of our methods. Water is only to be had from rains,
rivers, and springs. From rivers we cannot get it
pure; from rainfall we cannot get it, as it seems,
either so plentifully or so cheaply as from springs ;
from springs we cannot get it unless we embrace a
very wide district of country. Mr. Napier reports a
sufficiency of good water in a certain locality. Mr.
Rammell calculates, by a
more precise examination,
that the quantity is an undoubted fact, and that the
area can afford to dispense with it. What is now re-
quired is that the quality of each separate spring should
be ascertained beyond dispute by chymical analysis,
that a complete estimate of expense should be framed by
competent authorities; in a word, that a thoroughly
digested plan should be brought before Parliament.
The evidence adducible in favour of such a plan will
be the only ground upon which the powers of the
existing companies can be contested, their allegations
rebutted, and some general measure laid down.
It is really in the interest of the water companies
to join in imposing a measure of this nature upon
Government. The most economical scheme to the
public will be also the best for them, as they would
secure a compensation which,
if it falls into private
bands, will be much more scantily dealt out to
them. It is useless to suppose that we shall remain
content with the imperfect or deleterious supply
now furnished when the sanitary importance of a
pure one has become so manifest, and its possibility
so nearly established. It need hardly be added that
it is much in the interest of Government, at a
time when party questions are comparatively in
abeyance, to signalise a session by some internal
reform which may commend itself to a numerous
class, or satisfy some natural expectation. Even
should Ministers decline to take upon themselves a
responsibility which ought to he dictated alike by
their position and previous agency in the matter, they
should, at least, take care that an inquiry, which it
was imperative to set on foot, should not be stopped
short at the moment when success draws near. We
could forgive hesitation or indifference after the in-
vestigation had furnished us with some incontestable
data, but we ought not to be mocked with a tan-
talizing series of propositions of which none is con-
firmed, and a conclusion by which nothing is con-
cluded.—Times.