The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-22 00:00:00

FOUR CHILDREN BURNT TO DEATH.

SKIBBEREEN, MARCH 16.—A melancholy occur-
rence, and one attended with awful loss of lives,
took place in this neighbourhood last night. A
family living on the lands of Lahenagh, after re-
tiring to bed, were awoke with the fumes
of burning straw; the father made his way to the
place where the smoke proceeded from, and found the
kitchen, which he left a few moments previous, en-
veloped in flames, so much so, that he was not able to
effect an entrance into the sleeping spartment of his
wife and children, and, horrible to relate, four of his
children were consumed in the flames. One and his
wife succeeded in escaping the conflagration by
jumping through the window in the sleeping apart-
ment, and by this means saved their lives. The house
has been burned to the foundation, and the remains
of the children, when witnessed by the medical gen-
tlemen who attended there (Mr. Crowly, of Skib-
bereen), cannot be described.

INSTITUTION OF CIVIL EN-
GINEE4S, MARCH 18.

The President, Sir Joins RENNIE, in the Chair.
A paper on the drainage of the Ancholme Level,
Lincolnshire, by Sir John Rennie, President, was
read. It commenced by describing.- „the position of
the Ancholme Level, which consial,a sif a low tract of
land, of about 200,000 acres in exteht, situated on
the south side of the river Humber, about ten miles
below its junction with the river Trent. The river
Ancholme runs through the centre of this level, and,
with its tributary streams, empties itself into the
Humber at the village of Ferraby. The alluvial
matter brought down by these streams formed a bar
at the junction of the Ancholme with the Humber,
which, by preventing the discharge of the drainage
waters, caused the level to be inundated with water,
rendering this tract of land totally unfit for tillage.
The paper then, after entering into great historical
detail as to the works which were executed at various
periods, from the time of the Romans, to render this
tract of land available for aglicultutral purposes,
stated that in the year 1801, the late Mr. Rennie
being applied to for his opinion as to the best plan
for improving and completing the drainage and navi•
gation of the level, reported that he attributed its
defective drainage to the deficient capacity of the
Ancholme and the subsidiary drains to carry off the
floods; to the till of the old Ferraby sluice having
been laid too high, and to there not being any catch-
water drains to prevent the floods from the adjacent
high lands from descending into the level. As a
remedy for these evils, he recommended that the
river Ancholme should be still further improved, by
straightening, deepening, and enlarging its channel,
and that two new locks should be placed upon i-;
also, with a view to preventing the floods from the
high lands inundating the level, two catchwater
drains should be made—one on the east side and the
other on the west side of the river Ancholme, with
separate and independent sluices at their junction
with the Humber, by which means all the highland
and lowland waters would be separated, and each
body of water would thus be effectually discharged
into the Humber without interfering with the other.
The catchwater drains involved an important and
novel principle, for in his opinion by the old
Dutch method of simply cutting a series of
straight drains to some convenient point, for discharg-
ing their water, the highland and lowland waters
were mixed together, and the highland waters
coming from a higher lever with a greater velocity
down upon the lowlands, forced their way first to the
outfall. The less rapid waters of the lowlands were
thus kept back, and were left to stagnate, the sluices
being unable to discharge the whole body of water
during the time when the tide with the Humber per-
mitted the sluice doors to be opened, and it was thus
impossible that the level could be drained; but by
separating the highland from the lowland waters,
each body of water could be effectually discharged
by an independent sluice. These catchwater drains
would answer also the important purposes of irriga-
tion during dry seasons, and for navigation.
The plans which were also at the same period
being beneficially carried into effect by Mr. Rennie,
and on a more extensive scale in the east and
west and Wildmore fens, near Boston, and also on
the Witham, near Lincoln, were partially executed ;
but the works not being completed, and for want of
funds not being subsequently kept in repair, the
drainage was found very insufficient, and at length
Sir John Rennie was called in to complete the system.
He proposed that the plans of his father should be
carried out; that the Ancholme should be further im-
proved, and a new sluice made at Ferraby, with a
till placed at a lower level, and new bridges made
throughout the lines ; also that an overfall and weir
should be constructed, with a large reservoir to catch
the sand which was brought by floods from the sur-
rounding hills, and had previously blocked up the
main and lateral drains. Minor weirs and reservoirs
were also recommended for the smaller drains and
brooks where they united with the level. These
works having been executed, the effect was that the
drainage was rendered complete and effective, and the
district was converted into a tract of fine arable
land. Subsequently another sluice was constructed
below Ferraby, with its till two feet below the
low water mark of extra spring tides in the Humber.
This sluice, which had three openings of eighteen feet
each in width, with draw-doors and self- acting gates,
was perfect in its effect, discharging about four times
the quantity of water in the same time that had
been previously accomplished. The whole of these
works were completed by Sir John Rennie, forty-
three years after Mr. Rennie's report, and 556
years after a regular system of drainage had
commenced, and the district was freed from water
without the aid of mechanical power, thus establishing
what was contended to be the surest principle of
drainage, the separating of the highland from the
lowland waters by catch-water drains, and discharg-
ing them independently of each other by their several
outfalls.

In an interesting discussion which ensued, the cor-
rectness of the principle was fully admitted, and it was
shown that by selecting proper localities for the out-
falls, and by placing the tills of the sluices below low
water mark of spring tides, there were not any fen
districts in the kingdom that could not be drained
without mechanical aid.

It was announced that there would not be any
meeting on Easter Tuesday, and the meeting was ad-
journed until Tuesday, April the Ist, when the
monthly ballot for members would take place, and the
following papers would be read :
No. 706. " An Account of the new Cast-Iron Pier
at Gravesend." By J. B. Redman, Grad. Inst. C.E.
No. 711. "On Gas Meters." By A. A. Crole,
Assoc. Inst. C. E.

NECESSITY OF ASCERTAINING
THE AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF
THE COUNTRY.
(From the Journal of Commerce.)

It is very discreditable that in such a country as
Great Britain, so little should be known of its agri-
cultural statistics; and that, in fact, nothing should
be officially known on a subject of so much interest
and importance to the national welfare. Every ses-
sion of Parliament we hear the most contradictory
assertions advanced as to the agricultural capa-
bilities of the country—the one party stoutly
maintaining, as an argument for the repeal of
the corn-laws, that England, in the most
favourable seasons, does not grow a sufficiency
of food for its inhabitants; the protectionists
as firmly maintaining that in ordinary years it
does grow sufficient, and in good years more than
sufficient, for its entire population. Where a subject
of this kind is left to vague conjecture, where there
are no official means for accurate information, it
might naturally be expected that each party would
adopt the views that best accorded with the political
object it wished to achieve. Our own observations