The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-29 00:00:00

ANTI-WATER-MONOPOLY
MEETING—(THIS DAY.)
A public meeting of the water -rate payers of Lam-
beth, Southwark, and parts adjacent, was held this day
at the Bridge-house Hotel, Southwark, to receive the
Report of a Committee appointed for the purpose of
forming a new Water Company. The Chair was
taken at one o'clock by Mr. H. Weston, of the
Borough Bank.
The CHAIRMAN said that he vas called upon to
take the chair at this meeting, in onsequence of the
inconvenience suffered by the inhabitants of this neigh-
bourhood, through the conduct of the Water Com-
panies on the Surrey side of the river in coalescing to
raise the price of the water supplied to their respective
rate-payers. It was a duty which the water-rate payers I
owed to themselves and to their neighbour!, to unite
and co-operate with each other, to get rid of the
evils of the monopoly.—(Hear, hear.) The gentle.
men who had taken the matter in hand, and called
the present meeting, believed that they were prepared
with a plan which would relieve the neighbourhood
from that inconvenience ; and it would be for the
meeting to consider how far they would concur in the
recommendation.
The Hon. Secretary, Mr. ROGERS, then read the
Report of the Committee, which stated that they had
been appointed, at a former meeting, to investigate
the various plans submitted for the attaining of a pure
and economical supply, and to procure an Act of Parlia-
ment for the formation of a Joint-stock Company. The
Committee accordingly consulted able engineers, on
whose judgment and experience they could rely, as to
the purity of the water, the abundance of the supply,
and the least expensive in its procurement and ulti-
mate delivery. The plan of Mr. James Pinkerton for
procuring a supply from the river Wandle, seemed,
upon a most careful comparison with every other that
had been presented to them, to possess all these ad-
vantages. It appeared, from the evidence presented
by a Committee to the House of Commons, in 1834,
that the water of the Wandle is the purest that
can be obtained within any reasonable distance of the
metropolis. The same Report, and the evidence of
Mr. Mills, Mr. Talfourd, and other engineers, justi-
fied the assertion that the supply would be
amply sufficient for the quantity of the metro-
politan district south of the Thames. The same
Report further corroborated the views of the Com-
mittee as to the facility and economy of obtaining
water from that source. The elevation of the water
at Beddington Park, where Mr. Pinkerton proposed
to take the water from, was ninety feet above the
level of the Thames at high-water mark, and the
reservoir which that gentleman proposed to form on
Clapham-common would be eighty feet above the
same level, thus enabling the Company to dispense
with any artificial power for supplying the ordinary
serving, and thus saving not only a great outlay of
capital iu the first instance, but a very large and
constant annual expense. The outlay required for
completing the works, according to Mr. Pinkerton's
plan, including the reservoir at Clapham, would be
60,000/. Having reached that point of expense it
would be at the option of the shareholders and the
public as to the extent to which they would lay down
pipes, &c. ; but there could be no doubt that the public
would no longer be content to receive the impure
and unwholesome article vended to them at present
at an enormous price, when they could supply them-
selves with the purest article at the cheapest rate.—
(Hear, hear.) The Report, after some minor com-
munications, concluded by recommending the `adop-
tion of Mr. Pinkerton's plan, in confident anticipation
of which result of that meeting, the Committee had
given the notice required by the standing orders, for
the introduction of a Bill in the next Session.
The motion that the Report be adopted having been
moved and seconded,
Mr. BLACKMOIiE objected to the course which' the
Committee were taking. The matters contained in
the Report were such as ought to be the last sub-
mitted to the meeting. In the former plan it was
proposed that the qualification of a Director should
be not less than five hundred shares, which throws
the whole management into the hands of a few wealthy
persons, and leaves the consumers as much at the
mercy of monopoly as ever.—(Hear.) The Commit-
tee were beginning to-day at the wrong end. They
ought to show first why it was that a new Company
was wanted.—(Hear and laughter.)
Mr. SOFTLAND, proprietor of the Bridge-house
Hotel, said, if the gentleman wants to know why we
want a new Company, I will tell him. They have
raised my rate this year from 201. to 36/. ; and the
British and Foreign Schools from 91.95. to 211.—
(Shame.) Whereas the London Tavern pays only
101., the Castle and Falcon 71. 75., aDd the London
Coffee-house only 12/. 12s.—(Shame.)
The Report was then unanimously adopted.
Mr. THORNE moved the first resolution, which was,
"that a Company be forthwith formed to carry the
recommendations of the Report into effect ;" which,
after a desultory discussion, was eventually carried.
A resolution was then passed continuing the pre-
sent Committee, with instructions to increase their
number to 24, by selection from the Subscribers.
A resolution having been put that the shares should
be issued at 101., an amendment was proposed to the
effect that the shares should be no more than 1/.
each. In reply to this it was explained that the duty
on the transfer of a 1/. share would be 10s.—(Hear.)
The original proposition (101.) was carried by a ma-
jority of 29 to 24.
A resolution was also passed instructing the Com-
mittee to call a meeting of Shareholders for the elec-
tion of Directors as soon as a sufficient number of
shares were subscribed for; the first payment to be
ten per cent., with two months' notice of another call.
Thanks were voted to Mr. Softland for the gra-
tuitous use of his rooms, and also to the Chairman,
and the meeting separated.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—Except the late Lord Durham's parting
proclamation from Canada, we do not remember so
reckless a State-paper as this of Lord Ellenborough
from Simla. The anarchy of the Affghan tribes will
find a parallel in the British monarchy, if every tem-
porary holder of power delegated from the Sovereign
is allowed to entertain " surrounding States " with
the faults and follies of his Queen's Government,
whenever the actual or former policy of that Go-
vernment does not suit his opinions. There is ad-
ministrative anarchy, not constitutional Government,
where these things are done. We hold that the only
authorities competent to pronounce judgment on the
policy of the empire—are the Legislature and Go-
vernment of the empire—no one of their delegates.
The party now in power were sufficiently vehement
against Lord Durham's unguardedness, in publishing
his philippic against Parliamentary friends and ene-
mies, in America. The inconvenience and peril of
such a proceeding were denounced justly at that
time. Is it less inconvenient and less perilous,
in the East than in the West to depreciate
national policy ? Is plain speaking so indispensable to
ears Oriental, that Lord Ellerisiorough felt com-
pelled to afford them this remarkable specimen
of it? Are they so likely to undi!,,rstand it in a sense
serviceable to our moral influence ? We can just
imagine that, in Europe, a certain; magnanimity may
be
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the
if it were exercised by those who had committed the
errors in question. It is not exactly considered that
much magnanimity is required to acknowledge
thosewhen
are poli-
tical opponents But the serious q-nestion is, whether
supposed errors of actual or past policy are to be de-
nounced at all by distant and subordinate functionaries
to hostile ears ! We regard this as :a most questionable
innovation of Governors General. It. can serve no pur-
pose, except to exalt an individual, .or a party, at the
expense of the reputation of the natioi nal policy. There
is no individual, and no party, wortl ► any such sacri-
fice. There is no individual, and Ito party, entitled
to isolate his or their claims to credit, and exalt them
at the expense of their country's character. Fo-
reigners do not judge of that charm der from the cle-
verness (or self-conceit of such) of this or that func-
tionary, but from the sustained di iznity of public
measures, emanating from a higher source. It was
Carthage, not Rome, that avenged i temporary re-
verses on her own leaders; the impe vial city showed
honour to hers, even while unsucce ;E;ful; and Philip
the Second had sufficient sense of dig nity to do so, on
the loss of the Spanish Armada. It w ins reserved for
the dignity and discretion of Lord Ellenborough
to twit his predecessors with error; forgetful ap-
parently that those predecessors represented, as much
as he does, the name and governmex it of Great Bri-
tain—not to be traduced lightly to :foreign malice !
To do as little as possible among the, Affghans, leav-
ing them, for their crimes, to " anarchy," and to get
away again as fast as possible, was the height of Lord
Ellenborough's aim in Affghanistam. Not even a
word about the rescued captives. NV:nether or not it
is prudent to withdraw, having vindicated our arms,
is an open question. But surely we m ight withdraw
without this undignified paean for peace at any price.
STANDARD.—The Morn* Chronicle of this
day makes an angry attack upon Lord Ellenborough's
proclamation, dividing its accusation under the two
heads of substance and expression. The substance,
which some would think the more important conside-
ration, our Contemporary postpones to a i Dore conve-
nient season ; a season which we suspect vs ill not soon
arrive—for it will take some time to pc asuade the
public that Affghanistan ought to be' retained. How-
ever, while suspending its judgment upon th esu.bstance
of what the Governor-General has actually resolved,
the Chronicle observes no delicacy with regard to the
intention which it gratuitously ascribes to his Lord-
ship—the intention, namely, of resigning the pri-
soners to their fate. Now, whether Lard Ellen-
borough ever held this intention or did npt, must be
a secret in his own breast ; certainly Sir .Itobert Peel
rtan
pledges e d not
sucho
intention,
vindicate
the
as is plain {.r m lhis re-
peatedentei
ehonour of the empire
at whatever cost; and it is not very protehle that the