The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-10 00:00:00

h!it 1rra.t0r,..., Bi, ,seemed
about 21,0001. of the public money yearly, or about 75
per cent. of the whole expenditure of the Commission,
and were cn some occasions (as we understood) paid
before their accounts were laid before the Board.
Mr. IaaTsLETT, the clerk, on being questioned, said
that the contractors had applied for the money before
the accounts came before the Board, but it had not been
paid to them.
Mr. LESLIE proceeded to argue that it would save
labour, arid prevent error, to have the accounts made up
daily, and that there was no possible objection to the plan.
Mr. LAURIE strenuously supported the proposition,
which, after a long and uninteresting conversation, was
negatived, by a majority of 17 to 10, and Mr. Donald-.
son's amendment was agreed to.
'I he foul ill, fifth, and sixth resolutions, which were
intended to carry the third into effect, were also lost.
But the seventh, which only affirmed the advantage of
the plan proposed in the third, was, strangely enough,
carried by a majority of 8 to 7, upon which Mr. Leslie
remarked, "They wanted the fugleman this time 1"
The eighth resolution, which proposed an improve-
ment in the mode of recording petitions was agreed to,
with a slight amendment.
The ninth, which was to the effect that the surveyor's
reports should be laid before the Board, written in a
book, to be kept in the office, was lost by a majority of
fourteen to ten ; and an amendment, proposed by Mr.
Donaldson, that the reports should be bound up
afterwards, was adopted.
Mr. LESLIE said that the next four resolutions related
to one subject of great importance, and he would, with
the leave of the Board, submit them together. The
first stated that the present arrangement for making a
sewers' rate entailed an enormous amount of labour,
which could be most safely and materially diminished ;
and he went into a series of minute details in support
of this statement. The others were to the effect—
" That it would be of great public advantage and it is de-
sirable, that maps be prepared and engraved of each district,
showing the mode by which every tenement is drained ; and
that such district maps be on such a scale as ultimately, and
with all convenient speed, to show every street and tenement
in the district, and its private drainage into the public sewers.
And that every ailetion, alteration, or diversion of the sewage
be added thereto. That as occasion may require for the purpose
of a rate, the portion of each parish in the district be separated
from the map, and with an order in writing be sent to the
various vestry clerks, requesting them to supply the names,
residences, and rentals of all persons rated to the poor within
the limits of such map. That the vestry clerks' returns to the
precedir g order of Court, under the authority of the 52d
George 111., cap. 48, sec. 7, being a true copy of the rate-book
of the persons assessed to the poor-rate, with the designation
and rental of the property they occupy, together with the map
of the drainage of the district, are the best documentary evi-
dence the Court of Sewers can supply to the jury touching
two important questions left. for their decision and presentment,
via. :—The property that receives beneSt or avoids damage by
the sewage of the district, and the persons who are legallyf and
judicially recognised as the occupiers of that property.
lie was convinced that if they went on in the present
very imperfect manner, allowing their officers to tamper
with the list furnished by the vestry-clerks, and dis.
pensing with such accurate information as the maps pro-
posed would afford, they would inevitably find themselves
in difficulties. Lists made out from the parish rate-books
by their own clerks, were not legal evidence under the
Act, which required that the lists should ho made by the
vestry.clerks. He had always opposed the issuing of
warrants against the hospitals, the churches, and the
prison, and although the majority of the Board had beers
ag-nifist him, the result proved that he was right. In
the trial in the Queen's Bench against the Governor of
Bridewell they were defeated, and had to pay the costs
of the other party as well as their own. The plan which
he now submitted would prevent the recurrence of such
mistak( s, and render them much more secure in their
proceedings.
After another very long and desultory discussion, in
which Mr. Laurie and another gentleman supported Mr.
Leslie's proposition, whilst Mr. Donaldson and others pro-
nouns .d it expensive and useless, the resolutions were
negatived
Mr. LESLIE said that although he expected his next
proposition would also be negatived, he would request
the serious attention of the Board to its object. lie
would not say that there were no defalcations under
other Boards. But it could not be denied that under no

other Commission had there been so many defalcations as
under this. The system of employing collectors with a
per ctntsge, had the effect of placing the men themselves
in very great temptation, and not only was the business
done inefficiently, but the most distressing consequences
had tccured to innocent parties—the unfortunate securi-
ties. In one case of a defaulter, who had been defraud-
ing the Commission for twelve years, two respectable
families were completely ruined by the proceedings taken
by the Board against them, as his securities. Not only
would all this be avoided by giving the collectors fixed
salaries, and employing them as the servants of the Com-
missioners, so that they would be amenable to the crimi-
nal law for any embezzlement; but by the system which
he proposed in the following resolutions, the greatest
possible dispatch in the collection of the rates would be
insured, and the possibility of fraud almost prevented.
The resolutions were to the effect—

" That the expense of collecting the sewers' rate is very great,
and that the system of such collection is most defective ;—that
the exclusive occupation of the collectors should be as clerks to
the Commission, and their whole time devaed to the business
thereof,—that the remuneration should be by fixed salaries,
and not by a per centage, which most unequally pays the col-
lectors, varying as it does under the existing system from 104 d.
per house -to 4ad.; yet in the aggregate entails, taking the
average of the last 54 years, an annual charge upon the rate-
payers of three pounds sixteen shillings and eightpence per hun-
dred pounds collected, or a gross annual sum of one thousand
pounds :—and that the present system of allowing the col-
lectors to take away from the office the rate-books, and per-
mitting them to have blank notice papers and blank receipts
to be
in
negSolplifieud up
office,
ca and
taxation.
themselves,
so
pTrehpaatr
that
y -ebv oeorkys improperpdaor party
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aylw
chargedaalways
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such rate may, immediately on payment, be thereon discharged.
That the collecting clerks take with them, on proceeding to.
collect, books of receipts prepared in the office, and also a
form of daily return, showing the name of the person, the
locality, and the amount received, to be filled up on the spot;
that at the close of the day's collection the amount tendered
by each clerk be chequed against the stumps of the absent re-
ceipts, such stumps to be stamped with a stamp prepared for
the purpose, showing the day each sum was accounted for, and
that from these daily returns the party charged on the rate-
book be discharged."
[The remaining resolutions related to the details of
the account-keeping.]
Mr. DoNALDsoN opposed the resolutions. He said
hat in the last twenty-five years rates to the amount of
600,0001. had been collected, upon which the defalcations
had been only 3,0001., and of this the public lost no more
than 2001., the securities having made good the re-
mainder. He denied that the employment of clerks as
collectors would be more efficient, and appealed to the
meeting if they were prepared to dismiss from their ser-
vice, for the sake of a very doubtful experiment, men
who had served them faithfully and without fault, some
of them for more than thirty years.
Mr. MAYHEW moved, and Mr. LAURIE seconded an

amendment, to the effect that the plan of Mr. Leslie
sh.,uld be acted upon, by the . employment of coll.tcting

clerks, according as vacancics -occurred amongst the
present collectors.
The amendment, after much discassion, was negatived,
and the further consideration of the resolutions was
postponed to the next open day.
The Court then adjourned, at half-past five o'clock, till
Friday.

ROYAL COMMISSION OF FINE

ARTS.

Whitehall, Jan. 8, 1844.
Her Majesty's Commissioners hereby give
notice :

1. The decorative works intended for exhibi-
tion, according to the notices published in June
and July, 1843, are to be sent to No. 20, King-
street, St. James's-street (late the St. James's
Bazaar), between the hours of ten and five on
any day, Sunday excepted, during the first
week in March next, when agents will be in at-
tendance to receive them ; but no work will be
receivedafter Thursday the 7th of March.
2. Each exhibitor is required to send, together
with his work, a letter containing his name and
address, and stating the number, if more than
one, of the specimens sent by him, with such
descriptions of the designs, materials, or modes
or execution as may he intended tOr publication,
subject to the approval of the Commissioners. •
The name of the exhibitor is also to be written
on each specimen sent by him, an►d the speci-
mens are to be numbered, to correspond with
the list or description contained in his letter.
3. The artists or their agents may attend to
examine the works sent by them, and to re-
stretch such drawings or paintings as may have
been detached from their stretching frames and
rolled for the convenience of carriage.
4. No work will be allowed to be retouched
after having been received, except to repair an
injury occasioned by accident, and then only by
the artist himself.
5. Every possible care will be taken of the
works sent, but in case of injury or loss the
Commissioners will not be responsible.
6. Catalogues of the Exhibition will be pub-
lished.—By command of the Commissioners,
C. L. EASTLAKE, Secretary.

A Correspondent residing' in Turner'sCourt.has a I
Canary bird sitting_ upon four eggs, which, in the ordinary
course, should be out in two or three days. This is the seventh
hatching by the same bird since the middle of July last. Some
of the former nestlings are tuning their pipes in various quar-
ters of the town as melodious and loud as the old birds.— Glas-
gow Argus.
MURDER.--A very great sensation was caused
n the neighbourhood of Guildford on Saturday morning, fro In
Lord Grantley's keeper having been found in the canal close tto
his Lordship's preserves, which join the house, murdered. ..Ift
appears he was at the public-house at Bramley between eigh,t
and nine o'clock on Saturday evening, where there was a raffle
for a tat hog, and said to the landlord he must go round hiss
Lordship's preserves, to look after the pheasants, and would
return in an hour or 'o to take supper, since which he never was
teen alive. Guns were heard about that hour in the direction
the body eas found, and it is supposed he came on the poach-
ers instantly, who not being able to get away, and most likely
ber.g recognised by the keeper, shot him through the head,
and, fro,n the mangled apparance, must have brutally be
him about the head, then dragged him about twenty yards, and
thrown him into the canal, which is close to the spot. The
marks of a severe struggle between the parties is very evident,.
and the ground is covered with blood. His hat and stick were:
leg on the bank. Ile was a most powerful masa, and lived witla
the lute Lord Grantley. He was a great favourite of the pt.( :-
sent Lord, and has left a wife and seven children.
A young backwoods lawyer lately concluded Isis
argument in a case of queue elausum fregit with the followi ssg
sublime burst : —" If, gentlemen of the jury, the defendan
hogs are permitted to roam at large over the fair fields of Lay
client with impunity, and without pokes—then, yes, thion,
have our forefathers fought, and bled, and died in vain l"