The Sun. — 1852-12-30 (London, England)

FLEET-DITCH—ITS PAST AND PRESENT STATE.—In February, 1733, the lord mayor, aldermen, and common- 6, council presented a petition to Parliament that a bill might be brought in to empower them to fill in that part 50 of the Fleet-ditch lying between Holborn-bridge and Fleet-street, and to convert the ground to such purposes St. as seemed most suitable, By virtue of an act granted by Parliament, this part of the Fleet-ditch was arched 16 over, and part of the site converted into a market, which was opened en the 13th September, 1737 ' by this means the nuisance of the Fleet-ditch was so far hidden from the sight of the London wayfarer, that many believed that the unsavoury stream was altogether covered from human sight, except such portions as they might have occasionally seen winding its almost stagnant course through the Hampstead fields ; but until the last seven or eight years, the Fleet-ditch, with all its abominations, rolled uncovered through Clerkenwell and along the back of Field-lane. It had, by the time it reached the former site of Holborn-bridge, become a stream of no mean compass, increased as it was by the various offensive tributaries of Kentish Town, Camden Town, Islington, &e, New Farringdon-street was projected, and a,gain a portion of the. Fleet was arched ; after that most people considered that the Fleet-ditch was a thing of the past, and only to be seen by the sewer guardian, or by some venturous " mud lark," who might, in defiance of the threatened punishment, in search of gain, "explore the river," from its termination at Black Tars-bridge. So certain was it the unsightly Fleet was now hidden from the sight and smell, that several leading journals published congratulatory articles on the occasion. Unfortunately, however, this putrid river passes uncovered through the heart of Clerkenwell: on its shores horses, &c., are slaughtered, other filthy trades pursued, the abominations of which we feel sure not one in a hundred of our readers can form a just conception of.—The Builder. VALVE OF A MINUTE !—A minute, my friend, is something. A minute ! how many years must it seem to somebody standing on a scaffold in the chilly morning, with the spectre of a white night-cap grinning over his shoulder, -with the hands of Saint Sepulchre's Church pointing to one minute to eight, and with but that minute plank between him and the deep sea of eternity. A minute—will not the thousandth part thereof, consumed in a nimble spring to the right or the wrong side, decide tie odds between your being 10 landed safely on a well-swept platform heaped with Christ- 25 mas hampers, and hung round with jovial banners, or 10 placards respecting Christmas excursion trains, and your 1.0. being crushed to death beneath the remorseless wheels of that same excursion train, as it glides heavily along ,Sot. the treacherous rails into the station ? A minute !—in 12 that sub=division of the day how many words of hope, or love, or murderous accusation, or frenzied anxiety, or 5 kindly greeting, will throb through the sentient wires of St. the telegraph, over marsh, and meadow, and lea— through hills and tunnels— across valleys and deep 17 rivers ? A minute will break the back of the strong steam- 25 ship, and bend her with all her freight of mailed warriors, and weather-beaten mariners, and restive chargers down to the coral reefs and the pearls that lie in dead men's eyes, to be no more heard of till the sea gives up its dead ! A minute decides the Derby, settles whether 40 the firm of Ingots, Nuggetts, Bullion, and Co., shall go I.,°°A, into the Gazette, and Basinghall-street, or its senior partner, Sir John Ingots, into the House of Peers. "' Guilty or not guilty ; the billet of all the bullets at a battle ; head or tail ; "how will you have it ?" or " no effects ;" all these lie within the compass of a minute, of 2( less than a minute, of the infinitesimal particle of a minute !—Dickens's Household Words.