The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-19 00:00:00

lr of £5OO to

,evr of all
e curious and intelligent inhabitants of London have
lonception of the vast channels which have beer
formed under our leading thoroughfares
fuse of London to its present ill-chosen nestination
wish we could induce some of them to accompany us in a
subterranean excursion from Oxford-street to the outlet
of King's Scholars' Pond Sewer. In the good old time of
the heptarchy of dirty waters, when it was not thought
amiss to preface animal or biennial ceremonies by a sub-
stantial breakfast or ajeteners al a fourchette, the offici-
als and a privileged few were wont to fortify themselves
for the important tour of inspection by such creature
_ _
comfort.'

LONDON SEWERS.-

How f

to convey the re-

The consolidated commission eschews au
such extravagancies, and serves the public without fee or
feast ; about the expediency of which proceeding
we have
a misgiving or two, for we confess to a prejudice in favour
of paid officials. But be this as it may, the breakfast
under the old system was a right good one, and as satis-

factory a preparation as could be desired for our discent
into the realms of darkness. But the breakfast was not by
any means the only preparation required of us. There
was a toilette to be made, by the help of certain strange
valets de chambre, and certain vestments to be put on,
which would have effectually disguised an Irish rebel..
Thick leggings of felt, thick leathern boots reaching to

:osh of ample dimensions;

lie of the thigh, a mac
nd a slouched hat, were the chief items of the costume
Down, then, we dived, till we splashed into the waters of
the far-famed. tributary ; and on we toiled, with the black
stream above our knees, erect under the substantial arch
of brickwork, lighted with fragments of candles. There
was something very striking in this world of brick and

mortar, stretching as far as the eye could reach, echoing
with the roar of mimic cataracts pouring from the higher
levels, and resounding with the shouts of the presiding
genii, as they hunted a poor solitary rat, till he suffered
the unexpected fate of being squelched, after Carlyle 's
fashion, beneath the merciless heel of his pursuer. Thus,
always and everywhere, has man the spirit of the chase
moving in him. We shall scarcely be believed when we
affirm that the chief inconvenience in the •excursion con-
sisted in the heat of our strange garments, and the fatigue
of wading through so many hundred yards of flowing water.
But so it was. The atmosphere is much less objectionable
to the senses than most men would think. At length we
emerged from our underground pilgrimage, not sorry to
put off our strange garments, and ready to appreciate to
the full the luxury of soap and water. A short walk
brought us to the Thames, where we took a last view of
our tributary stream flowing in all its darkness into the
mass of muddy waters. Who would have thought that
this foul burn was carrying with it the very wealth which
our merchants are sending thousands of miles to procures
—that it was nothing less than a guano stream, with a
clear marketable value in it of between £30,000 and
£40,000 a-year. Such are the wonderful revelations of
that science which is skilled to see things impure and
offensive to the senses the source of almost fabulous
wealth.—Fraser's Magazine.
PHONETIC SPELLING.—In a former number of our
journal, we stated that the cause of the great difficulties
felt by children in our National and British Schools, when
learning to read, arose from the complexities and absur-
dities of our orthography. The amount of this is best
shown by the following statements. I. It is a fact, that
no one can tell the sound of an English word from its
spelling. Proof.—To read the book he has read ;to pre-
sent a present • the slough of a snake in a slough ; lead
me to the lead' mine ; refuse the refuse, &c. &c. ; the
words in italics are pronounced differently, that is, are
different spoken words, according to their meaning alone ;
and there are 201 words of this kind in our language,
which are pronounced in 406 different ways.-2. The
same combination of letters has very different significa-
tions in different words; compare hear. heard, heart ;
here, where; hoe, shoe ; now, know ; lover, clover; lum-
ber, plumber; laughter, slaughter; doe, does, (v.,) doeth;
eyed, keyed, conveyed, journeyed; and so on, in an infi-
nite number of cases.-2. There is a very large number of
words, concerning the pronunciation of which even or-
thoepists are not agreed : as, knowledge, (nolledge, no-
ledge;) leisure, (lec-2hur, lezh-ur,) inimical, inimical,
and so on.-4. No one can be sure of the pronunciation
of any word he has not been previously taught : let the
reader try the unusual words, batman, beaufin, rowlock,
bourgeoise, (type ;) and the names of places and persons,
Beaulieu, Auchinleck, Hochelagu, and so on. Those who
do not know how to pronounce these words, maylurn the
page and read :
•yafirivisisou'qaayv‘yozairaappng‘annn.i'zio;sq‘untuasoff
11. It is a fact, that no one can tell the spelling of an
English -word from if. sound. Proof.-1. There are 364
spoken words, each spelled in two ways, (waste waist,
hall haul, leek leak, stake steak, &c. ;) 36 spoken words,
each spelled in three ways, (ewe you yew, pair pare pear.
meet meat mete, &c. ;) 4 spoken words, each spelled is
four ways, (I eye ay aye, by buy bye b'ye, road rode
rowed Rhode, rite write right wright ;) 1 spoken word,
spelled in rive ways, (air ere e'er eyre heir;) total, 405
spoken words, spelled in 857 ways ; but the variations of
the spelling never depend on the sound, and cannot be
learned from it.-2. There are upwards of 1500 words,
about the spelling of which authors are not agreed ; and
writers also disagree with regard to the spelling of many
classes of words represented by honor, honour, beveled
bevelled, benefited benefitted, centre, center, dependent
dependant, patronise patronize, appal appall, inquirer
guuarygeeoiisse,un biuforgrmhelry,
by
enquirer, negotiate nociate, control controu/, expense
expense,husband allege
hose all edge,yin ,com
ghostpl,e complete,
city, c mpleat, connexion
connection, precede preceed.-3. The style of spelling
cannot even be predicted from a knowledge of etymology
compare fancy phantom concede succeed, island, buy,
are 2 modes of writing the sound of the italic letters in
the ; 4 for those in yea, way, hay ; 6 for those in pea; 7
for those in be, cheese, go, thin, vision, sing ; 8 for those
in foot, do, view ; 9 for that in joke ; 10 for those in our,
represented &c.
theo s I lo
lu
asnind e
ii
fi
senis;n t
;there
the burgess
lan
b
row ; 11 for those in oil ; 12 for those in art, tea, fee, she,
lea: 13 for those in on, me ; 16 for that in am ; 18 for
that in as; 19 for those in cat, sin, no ; 21 for that in all ;
24 for that in up ; 26 for that in idle ; 29 for that in who;
30 for that iu use; 34 for those in ale, hole ; 36 for that
in ell; 37 for that in ill ; and 40 for the sound expressed
by the italic letters in eel.-5. Every letter of the alpha-
bet, except j, is occasionally mute ; and every letter has
more than one phonetic sense ; see a iii hating, father,
water, many, hat, want, and au in gauging, aunt, haul,
hauteur, Jervaulx Abbey, laurel, meerschaum, Menelaus.
tentertaining
a and
detailed proofs of these extraordinary facts, which
those who are accustomed to mechanical correctness of
spelling all the words in common use, by years of labour
and t
Mr. Ellis's Plea for Phonetic Spelling, a work which is
.uii
of
l ,
matter scarcely
d sawaretar startling of,
ing mayfact seen n
Corres-
• pondent,