The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-22 00:00:00

popular as in the present, 1 am sure it would be an ar-
rangement much approved of. If there were fewer lec-
tures on dry and uninteresting subjects, and more on this
thrilling and pleasing subject, I am confident the atten-
•dance would be both more numerous (if possible) and
more respectable. Now that the working classes have
their intellectual musical recreations, why should not the
higher classes have the same. Now gentlemen, 'what
theatre could be so appropriate as that of the Collegiate,
and what subject more popular or so important as music ?
In this way we might often be favoured with the services
of some of our distinguished vocal performers on the
stage ; and in this way there would be a greater taste cul-
tivated for this most ennobling and delightful subject.
What subject is so important as that of singing , or what
subject so much tends to refinement of feelings and taste;
or what subject tends so much to the progress of civiliza
Lion ; or what subject tends half so much to cheer and
render happy the domestic hearth, as music. I hope
therefore, the spirited directors of this noble institution
will set an example to England at large, in the extending
of the knowledge of, and taste for this delightful subject.
The present theatre would not near accommodate the
members, if the lectures were of a more musical caste.
I am, Gentlemen, &c.,
A LIFE MEMBER OF THE COLLEGIATE
INSTITUTION.
Liverpool, Dec. 19, 1846.

ing power or volatile influence, shared in the calamity,
and began to acquire, in a few hours, a very respect-
able coating of rust; whilst wood-work was not in-
active in absorbing the disgusting fluid. The tenant
had to get a poor ragged urchin out of the street, having
his feet only naturally furnished, to wade ankle-deep over
the invaded territory, in order to make some expedient
arrangements about rescuing the dinner out of the oven!
A specimen of the fluid was sent to Dr. Brett, who
states that it was highly charged with sulphuretted
hydrogen (blackening salts of lead copiously).
If no other case had ever been known to 'occur, it were
amply sufficient to danan one of the celebrated clauses in
the existing Sewerage Act.
learnt, further, that this awful state of things was no
novelty—it was an historically periodical fact. I leave
this, with my respects, at the door of the old Corporation :
it bath a tongue, and may aecuse, to the extent of its own
" list," the fol.y of old legislation without medical advice.
I turn now to a few words about cellars.—The late Im-
provement Act drove crowds out of cellars which were
not of the required parliamentary height above the door-
sill, or window, or area, or street flagging; but senatorial
wisdom forgot to stipulate that the depth for the fl mring
should be required to possess a limit, as well as the height
of the ceiling. The data for reckoning the height of the
ceiling were easily assumed to be at a natural, or at least
reasonable zero. This would have been all right if they
had enforced the zero of flooring, then there had been an
unalterable datum preserved in all cases for gauging the
height of the cellar. Many cellar owners, who found
that their cella s were not in compliance with the require-
ments of the act, through being too low, on ingeniously
reflecting upon a plan for driving their coach-and-six
through an Act so obnoxious to their pockets, found that
they could not gain the required height for the -ceiling
witl.out lifting the whole house above it the 2 or 3 feet
requisite: but this was not practicable of course, whilst th
second alternative was rather more feasible, and, withal,
easy of execution. And why not lower the cellar floor
jut to the depth requisite to give the 13 feet in height ?
Tois bright thought, which would have made the fortune
of many a lawyer, was perhaps hit upon by some inventive
wit, feed for the happy remedy. Away the landlords
went to eager work, and floces of cellars of Liverpool
Proper were lowered quickly, and again h- ld out their
blandishments to their tallow-townsmen, whose instinctive
habits approached them to the well known burrowing
classes of animals. I have no pretended knowledge as to
the extent to which this refinement upon cellar levels has
been carried, but I may as well give what slender evidence
I hapaen to have. I obtained the statements from the
poor people themselves, who have been eye witnesses of
the interesting burrow-system. They were patients com-
ing for advice as out-door patients to the Dispensary of
the Lying-in Hospital. If on any point they 'should
have misled me as to the spot or fact, I should be_ sorry,
for it would, if so, do an injustice to the working of the
act. Leeds-street contains at least two of this new de-
vice. I saw these myself in the act of lowering, and on
inquiring what they were sinking for in one corner parti-
cularlv, was told by the workmen that a dry well required
to be formed there, as the floor was deepened, " in order
to comply with the act !"

Other; similar are said to grace Lydia Anne-street, and
rheumatism occured in a case occupying one of them,
which was roundly attributed by the poor woman to so
adequate a cause.

I am, Sir, yours truly.

G. C. WATSON