The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-19 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER SEWAGE.

Lord DUNCA—Nro-se and said, that seeing the Noble
Lord, the Member for Plymouth in his place, he wishes
to ask him several questions on an unsavoury subject,
namely, when the sewage of Westminster is brought into
the new cesspool in Parliament-gardens, where the Com
missioners intend to pump it to: where the outlet to the
new sewer now constructing is to be; and why the Corn
missioners of Sewers did not commence at the end
nearest the outlet : what the total estimate of the new
line of sewer amounts to; and whether there is any ob
jection to lay the estimate on the table of the House ee
Commons : whether the new line of drainage is suffi-
ciently deep for the requirements of the Commissioner,
of the Westminster improvements, and to drain the
entire of the Westminster district ?
Lord EBRINGTON said it was not sewage water
that the steam engine had been erected to pump out
but water which issued from the adjoining land and col-
lected in a deep cut that had been made for the purpose
of erecting a new sewer. As regarded the other ques-
tion, he replied that the water was to be pumped into
the sewer in Great George-street, which was on a
higher level, in order to enable the workmen to continue
their operations.
Mr. GREENE asked the Noble Lord whether it was
intended to carry the proposed sewer from the poim
where the steam-engine was placed, at the corner of
Palace-yard, through Whitehall-gardens, to an outle.
into the Thames, in Scotland yard? It such were du
intention of the Commissioners of Sewers, what was
their object in carrying it to so great a distance, when a
shorter outlet, and, it might be presumed, at least at
good a fall might be obtained near Westminster-bridge;
and whether, if an outlet were at once male for the new
sower near Westminster-bridge, the carrying off the
sewage, by means of pumping it up, might not be alto-
gether avoided?
Lord EBRINGTON replied that the wall which was
to be erected at the outlet of the sewer in Scotland-
yard was to be of a temporary nature, because the Corn
missioners of Sewers were desirous that the Thames
should not be polluted by the sewage wate'
of the metropolis any longer than was necessary.
He was not competent to give an opinion as to the su
periority of the plan which bad been adopted for the
erection of these sewers, but it had been approved of
by men who were capable of judging as to what was mob,
advisable under the circumstances.

Sir DE LACY EVANS wished to ask the Hon.
Gentleman opposite (Mr. Greene) whether he coulr
give the House any ihforrnation regarding the three
great cesspools which it was said had been oonstructe
under the new Houses of Parliament, and also whethet
he could lay on the table a copy of the controversy whici
hounderstood had taken place between Mr. Barry an(
the Commissioners of Sewers regarding the drainage o
the new Houses?

Lord ASHLEY said there was only one cesspool,
though there were many tributaries. In 1843 a corre
spondence took place between the consulting engineer of
the sewers and the architect, but he could not sa)
whether or no Government would consent to lay it or
the table.

lilr. BANKES wished to know if the steam-engin,
now constructing in Parliament-gardens would be buil
to consume its own smoke.

icount EBRINGTON was understood to reply in
,he negative.

GREECE.

Mr. B. OSBORNE wished to put a question to the
Hon. Baronet the Member for Radnorshire relative t'
the affairs of Greece. The Hon. Baronet, from time t,
time, had moved for papers relating to the Greek busi.
mess, which bad recently been laid on the table of the
House. Now, he wished to ask the Hon. Baronet when
he intended to draw the attention of the House to the
subject ?—(Cheers.)
Sir J. WALSH really must correct a mistake the Hon.
Member for Middlesex had fallen into. He had never
moved for any papers whatever, but be had on one or twe
occasions put is question across the table on the subject.
He did not, however, think that his having done si
necessarily obliged him to undertake the serious task o
bringing the matter formally before the House.
GROWTH OF COTTON IN INDIA.
Mr. BRIGHT then rose to move that an humble ad.
dress be presented to her Majesty, praying her West)
to appoint a commission to proceed to India, to inquirt
into the obstacles which prevent an increased growl',
of cotton in tbat country, and to report upot
any circumstances which may injuriously affect
the economical and industrial condition of the
native population, being cultivators of the soi
within the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras.
He telt certain that the House would not require
him to offer any apology for bringing forward th.
subject to which his motion referred; for at the
first glance he felt persuaded that every Member to,
the House must acknowledge the importance of the
subject which he was about to bring under their !motley.
Whatever might be the fate of the resolutionwhich he
was about to propose—whether he succeeded in obtain-
ing this commission or failed, at least there woulc
be but one opinion in the House with regarc
to the importance to which it referred, namely,. the ob
t iining of an adequate supply of the raw material of one
of the greatest textile manufactures of this country.
The trade employed directly or indirectly probably not
much less than 2,000,000 of the population of the Unitea
Kingdom, and it employed an amount of capital far
greater than was to be found engaged n. any other of
the manufacturing trades of the United Kingdom. That
i
trade also produced a very much larger amount of the
whole exports of the United Kingdom than did
any other branch of our national industry, and
that had, as a matter of course, a .very great influenci-
over the imports. The raw material on which that ca-
pital was engaged, in the working up of which 2,000,000
of our population obtained their
i livelihood, was a sub-
ject not of local, but of national importance. The whole
import of cotton into this country in 1800 was not more
than 56,000,0001b5. weight. It had increased very
rapidly, and in 1849 it had reached the
enormous amount of 754,000,000165. weight. Our sup-
plies of this material were drawn first of all from the
United States of America ; s!condly, in point of
quantity, from the British possessions in India; thirdly,
4
from Brazil; fourthly, from Egypt; and fifthly, from the
British West Indies. Taking the import of the last five
years, the United States of America had furnished 78i
per cent• of the cotton consumed here, the East Indies
about 10 per cent., the empire of Brazil about 7 per
cent., Egypt 34 per cent., and the British West Indies,
about per cent. The increase had been enormous in
the 'Tufted States; it had been very little, if at all, from
British India; it had been very large from Egypt;
almost t s auonary from Brazil ; and in the East
Indies the supply had fallen almost to nothing,
We derived 784 per cent. from the United States, and
although the increase there had been very large, yet the
crop was an exceedingly fluctuating that periodically tilt
cotton trad,e of this country suffered great difficulty and
embarrassment, either from a real or trom L
menaced insufficiency of supply. In 1838 the
crop was only, 1,360,000
.bales ; in 1848 it was
2. ,700,000 bales; in 1849 it was 2,000,000, vary.
ing thus 700,000 or 800,000 in only two
crops, or a falling off at least of 25 per cent.
These facts were sufficient to show the House that it
was their bounden duty to take some steps to relieve the
manufacturing interests from the effects of these fluctua-
tions,. There was another point, too, to which he must
call their attention, and that was, that the whole of the
cotton was the production of slave labour. Now, with.
out going any further, he thought they were quite
justified in saying that the institution of slaver%
would not last much longer, and in whatever way it
waa disturbed, there was great fear that for soul) time