The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-12 00:00:00

HEALTH OF TOWNS.-FILTRA-
TRATION OF WATER.
The importance of pure water is admitted by all to be
very great as one means of improving and maintaining
the health of large towns. The supply. for the metro-
polis has often been complained of, as being by no means
so clear, bright, or limpid as water for drinking and for
other domestic uses should be. Any plan, therefore,
that is calculated to remedy the evil, demands immediate
and serious attention. On this account, attendance was
yesterday given at Brownlow-mews, Gray's Inn-lane, to
witness Stuckey's patent filter in operation. It was ex-
hibited on the scale of three feet square, the filter itself
being thus of nine feet surface, and purifying the large
quantity of 100,000 gallons in the 24 hours. The water
filtered was from the New River; and, certainly, the
process clarified it to an extraordinary degree. The ori-
ginal liquid appeared thick and turbid; but when it had
passed through the sponge of the machine, the stream
was as limpid and sparkling as if just procured from a
crystal spring. This new method of filtration has ex-
cited much attention in Parliament, where Lord
Brougham has declared it to be of immense importance
to the public welfare._.The inventor, Mr. W. H. Stuckey,
is a native of Russia, but thi son of English parents.
The principal novelties in the invention are the rapidity
of the filtration, and the employment of sponge, in a
highly compressed state, as the filtering material. The
rapidity is of twofold importance—the saving of time
and cost, and the preservation of the best qualities of
the water. With regard to the latter object, it appears
that any process that filters water drop by drop, or in
very small quantities, deprives it of the carbonic acid
gas it previously contained, thus rendering the
liquid flat, far less wholesome, and more liable to
speedy decomposition. By this invention, however, the
water is filtered with rapidity, and in large quantities ;
and thus every good quality is retained, while the agree-
able briskness and (to use the German expression) " the
spirit of the well" is unimpaired. With respect to the
filtering material, sponge, from its very porous and reti-
culate structure. it not only allows the water to pass
through with great rapidity, but arrests every extraneous
matter mechanically mixed with it ; it can be more easily
cleansed than any other medium hitherto employed for
filtration ; and it has this further recommendation, that
it imparts neither taste nor smell to the water. Mr. S.
thus sums up the advantages of his invention over the
present system of filtration—that it presents an economy,
in space, of one foot for one acre ; in money, of 7,300/.
per annum, as the current expenses, instead of the esti-
mated current expenses of the New River Company, of
19,000/. per annum ; and in time, of filtering in six
hours by machinery of one foot to the acre, more than
2,300,000 gallons, which quantity in the Chelsea Water-
works, it takes twenty-four hours to filter. In an expe-
riment made before Lord Brougham, and other scientific
individuals, and the representatives of several of the
great water companies, Mr. Stuckey has, by a single
machine of only five feet square, filtered water in a thick
and muddy state, and produced it bright, limpid, and
sparkling, at the rate of 2,500,000 gallons in twenty-four
hours. Subsequently, a filter of not more than 100 cu-
bical contents has delivered at the rate of from three to
four million gallons per day. The plan has already been
in operation in Russia, in Government and other works,
for five years ; and it is about to be introduced, we be-
lieve, in Paris. It certainly seems calculated to effect its
purpose well and cheaply ; and, therefore, deserves at-
tention from the metropolitan water companies, and all
to whom pure, wholesome water is a desideratum ; and.
to whom is it not ?

LLOYD'S SHIPPING.
THE PIRATE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
AGAIN.

This vessel, of which some particulars of her recent
depredations were given a day or two since, has been
again seen up the Mediterranean, and although the vessel
she chased was enabled to effect her escape, it still shows
that her abominable trade is carried on in the very
teeth, as it were, of her Majesty's men-of-war. By a
letter received from Paris, dated the 9th inst., it appears
that " the Jean Baptiste, Martin, from Cette, arrived
at Havre on the 24th ult., was obliged to take shelter
under the Island of Ivica, and while lying there, towards
midnight, he perceived a brig, painted black, which he
supposed to be either a Greek or a Turkish vessel, with
all sails set. When arrived nearly opposite the Jean
n.ptiste. she clewed no her lower sails hauled down
her foretopsail, and rounded to. The Jean taptiste tacked
about, but the suspicious brig did the same, and
prepared to put her boat out ; perceiving which the
Jean Baptiste made all sail to run out to sea ; the
strange brig did the same, but• the sea running very
high she tacked, and remained with her topsails close
reefed." It will be remembered that in the recent ac-
count given under this head, the suspicious vessel is re-
presented as being a barque, whilst in the present in-
stance the strange sail is mentioned as being a brig.
A widely different rig, it is true, but may have been re-
sorted to as a ruse to escape detection—a kind of decep-
tion known to have been practised in former years by
pirates ; but if this supposition be incorrect, it then re*
mains that there are more than one piratical vessel in
those waters, and calls therefore for increased diligence
upon the part of her Majesty's cruisers. Surely, the de-
predations of these rovers will not be permitted to ex-
tend much further.

VESSELS SPOKEN WITH.—SiI vie, of Fecamp, March 30,
lat. 48, lon. 31 ; Vesta, from Havre, April 4, lat. 50,
lon. 9, by the Ville de Bordeaux, arrd. at Havre.
Creis Queer, Gravereau, Buenos Ayres, to Bordeaux,
March I, by the Cachelot, arrd. at Havre. Diadem,
Harland, England, to the Cape of Good Hope, Feb. 23,
lat. 10, S., lon. 27, W., by the Belle Poule, arrd. in the
Gironde. Gissore, from New York, Dec. 5, lat. 7, lon.
88, E.; Guiana, out forty days, from Batavia, lat. 22, S.,
lon. 4, E.; Bowline, of Glasgow, for Calcutta, Feb. 17,
lat. 1, N., lon. 21, W.; Tamerlane, Liverpool to ditto,
Feb. 18, lat. 1, ion. 21; by the Urgent, arrd. in the
Downs. Lady Flora Hastings, Liverpool, to Calcutta,
2d ult., lat. 4, S., lon. 25, W., by the Abbot Reading,
arrd. at Liverpool. Agnes Lea, London, to the Cape of
Good Hope, Feb. 6,lat. 38, S., lon. 24, W.; Harwood,
Feb. 21, lat. 4, S., lon. 25, W.; by the Bella Portina,
arrd. at Liverpool. Dolphin, of Jersey, outward bound;
Union of Guernsey, Rio, for Hamburgh; by the Caro-
line, off Cork.

ACCIDENT ON THE RIVER.—Two LIVES LOST.—
On Tuesday evening, between nine and ten o'clock, a boat,
in which were four young men and two females, was upset a
short distance from the Thames Tunnel, and two of the men,
named Roberts, aged 22, and James Green, aged 28, were
drowned. The others were saved. The party were returning
from Greenwich fair.
POPULARITY OF LEVER (" HARRY LORREQUER")•
—" The name of Lever has already become—albeit he
is young in authorship—associated with some of the
pleasantest things in life ; with a racy humour, unfailing
animal spirits, heartiness, and good nature ; an indurate
knowledge of all that goes forward in the queer corners
and lively districts of the social world—with, over all,
a manifest sincerity of relish for all the gay, manly, and
genial sports and pleasures he describes. His books
seem to make the reader and author personally ac-
quainted ; and we peruse one-half of them, as if Hof
were listening to the rattling, laughing, joyous gossip of
just found something to
at
en]l ous, l acquaintancea can
ho ld
whohis hpaesace no longer. Herein is
-has confined the high tide of his humour to a monthly
probably the source of his popularity. Hitherto Lever
flow ; but it has now swollen into the full flood of three
volumes, and brings us ' Arthur O'Leary's Ponderings
and Wanderings, in many lands at one and the same
time. The good spirits of the author never fail him,
ia ett u hisr
O'Leary'
Wey'
and Arthur O'Leary wanders and ponders only to find
us, withouthardly givea symptom
a m ore ofex
peflragsging, s
travels than by saying that afford heels.
can s
they a series of capital
pigtures for Cruikshank. The power of talent
lights up the work everywhere. vivifyingLe
veris
famous for his
bold, broad, dashing sketches, and deservedly so, but lie
can paint with admirable minuteness and finish. Wit-
ness his descriptions of Dutch scenes and people, which
are worthy of the clear and skilful pen of Washington
Irving. The same humour characterizes his remarks
upon his travelling countrymen, of whose doings his
sketches are often most ludicrous records. Mr.. Lever
has shown great versatility in his new work. There is
a deep interest in his stories."—Ainsworties Magazine.
INCENDIARISM IN BUCKS.—A man named James
Holbrook, by trade a carpenter, has beenfully committed
by the Marlow Bench of Magistrates, to take his trial at
the ensuing assizes for the county of Bucks, for setting
fire t ) a large wheat risk, which was totally consumed,
belonging to his uncle, Mr. John Harris, a farmer, at
L ttle .;arlow. The prisoner, who frequently threat-
, n.?;1 to injure the property of his relative for some time
prcvi aisly to his committing the felony, confessed his
guilt upon his b: ing apprehended the same evening.
CURIOUS POETICAL TITLE DEED.—Tile following
curious poetical title deed was ~ranted by William the Con-
queror to an ancestor of the late Marquis of Hastings; it is
copied verbatim from the original.grant, which was in pos-
session of his Lordship's grandfather, who
possessed the
estates in Yorkshire, on which he built the noble mansion
called Rawdon Hall :
" Concessum ad Paulum Roydon.
" I William King, the third yere of my reign,
Give to thee Paulyn Roydon Hope and Hopetowne,
With all the bounds both up and downe,
From Heaven to yerthe, from yerthe to h-1,
For thee and thyn, there to dwel,
As truly as this King right is myn,
For a Crosse bowe and a harrow
When I sal come to hunt on Yarrow ;
And in token that this thing is sooth,
I bit the whyt wax with my tooth,
Before Meg, Maud, and Margery,
And my thurd sonne Henry,'