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Leader (1850-1860), 6th January 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 8, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      <> f its iountry p ^ rmiti to the common work reestablishmentofpeace on just ^ d pennarwnt bases . ^^ « Prussia hasten with satisfaction that the protocols ofVienna , which still fohntiie common basis , are mentioned in ihe treaty . , «¦* * . ¦ "K she did not take part in the exchange of the notes of the 8 th of August , she at least gave Tier moral ^^^ diplSatic concert with the other Powers , therefore , still exists . ......

      " Prussia is disposed to join new , to come to an understanding , the pacific weight of which would be of a nature to exercise a salutary and decisive influence . ' ¦ _ "As regards the treaty of the 2 nd of December , Prussia observes that it bears the stamp of on entente ¦ with Austria . Prussia adheres to the general tendencies of that treaty , and is ready to conclude an analogous arrangement . . " With this object , and to fix with certainty eventual decisi ons , it leads naturally to the question what would be the interpretation of the guarantees which Russia has adopted without any reserve and in their primitive form ( redaction primitive ) . . ^ "This interpretation of the guarantees will be the pivot of the diplomatic measures . " The more Prussia appreciates the step taken by the Powers who signed the treaty , and the more desirous she is of responding to the sentiments which dictated that step , the more does she hope to obtain confidential explanations on the interpretation of the guarantees . "

      Untitled Article

      " ' . - - ' ¦ ' ' ¦ ' . » - ¦ ¦ i i ' ' ' ¦' , ? . ' . ' " *¦¦¦ : ' ' •¦ TRADE OF NEUTRALS . The question of the advisability of stopping the trade of neutral powers has occasioned much discussion , and the unsettled character of our decrees on the subject , and the laxity with which decrees are carried out , has given rise to great dissatisfaction . The nbn-interference ^ principle is thus argued against by a correspondent of the \ Tinie ? : — "If , we cannot persuade a neutral State ( say Prussia ) to join our righteous cause against the common enemy of Europewe are surely entitled to do our best to prevent

      , that State . deriving large additional revenues from-the war . Is it not worse than foll y to allow so great a temptation to sinful neutrality to remain undiniiuished ? The plan proposed for lessening tlie profits of this iniquitous indifference , and for impeding Russian trade , may not be perfect , no plan is so ; and it may in part injure us also ; still , will it not be wise to lay heavy duties on all Prussian goods and all goods and vessels from Prussian ports , and on all Prussian vessels entering any Briti 8 h _( qr J ! jolomal ) jport , jintilthat neutral State shall join us , at least to the extent * of " a commercial blockiadeT "

      Untitled Article

      THE FRENCH LOAN . Thb writer of the City article in the Times gives the following particulars relative to the French loan of 500 , 000 , 000 francs , or about 20 , 000 , 000 i sterling : — " The terms at which it is to be issued are considered low , and calculated to draw subscriptions from this side , should such be admitted . The Three per Cents , are to be issued at the rate of 66 | per cent ., and the Four-anda-Half per Cents , at 92 per cent The payment on subscribing is to be one-tenth , and the remaining instalments are to be spread over the unusually lengthened period of eighteen months . Notwithstanding the delay allowed in the payment of the instalments , the full dividend on the Three per Cents , will date from the

      22 nd of December , 1854 , and that on the Four-and-a-Balf per Cents , from the 22 nd of September , 1854 , an arrangement by which the Minister of Finance , calculates that the subscribers will receive a bonus of nearly 8 & per cent , as compared with the present range of prices on the Bourse . Four per cent , discount is also to be allowed to parties wishing to pay up the instalments in advance , "but this privilege will be confined at present to subscriptions not exceeding 1000 francs ( say 40 / . ) of annual rente , the object of this arrangement being to prevent large capitalists from deluging the market with the new creation of stock . One of the most interesting features of this national loan is the extent to which facilities are afforded to small capitalists . Subscriptions to the _ low amount of ten francs of annual incomo are actually invited . The lists are to be open from the 3 rd to the 14 th of January . "

      Untitled Article

      FRENCH AND ENGLISH ALLIANCES . A COKBESPONDBita ; of the Times ' says ;—" There exists an , Impressjon , on the minds of many of our countrymen that the iupnios of France and England have never , side by side , encountered a common foe , since they stood arrayed under Philip Augustus and our

      own lion-hearted monarch against the paynim hosts ef Saladin . Permit me to remind your readers that ra 1658 , on the declaration of war by Spain , Cromwell ( to use the words of Hume , voL 7 , pages 286—7 , edition

      17671 i ' i - ¦ ' ¦ ' '¦¦¦¦ " ' ' ¦ ' ¦ ¦ ¦ . ¦ «¦ ' ' Concluded a peace and an alliance with France , and united himself in all his counsels with that potent and ambitious kingdom .- . .. . . - . He was particularly desirous of conquest and dominion on the Continent , ana he sent over into Flanders 6000 men , under Reynolds , who joined the French army under Turenne . Siege was laid to Dunkirk , and when the Spanish army advanced to relieve it , the combined armies of France and England marched out of their trenches , and fought the battle of the Dunes , where the Spaniards were totally defeated . The valour of the English was much remarked on this occasion . Dunkirk , being soon after surrendered , was bv agreement delivered to Cromwell . '

      " Again , on the dissolution of the triple league between England , Sweden , and the United Provinces , and the aUiance with the French in 1670 , no less than 10 , 000 Englishmen co-operated with the armies of France against those of Holland and the Imperialists , and these troops Charles II . was by treaty prohibited from recalling from the service of le grand moiiarque , even on the conclusion by him of a separate peace with Holland . Of them it is said that ' they had acquired great honour in every action , and had contributed greatly to the successes of Louis . ' ( Page 525 ) .

      " In the campaign of 1675 the same troops were still to be found ranged under the banners of TuTenne , when guarding the French frontier on the Upper Rhine in opposition to his Imperialist rival Montecuculi ; and in the retreat consequent * upon the untimely death of that great Marshal * and the assumption of the command by De Lorges , the services of the English droops are thus recorded by the historian : — " 'De Lorges , nephew to Turenne , succeeded him in the command , and possessed a great share of the genius skilful

      arid capacity of his predecessor . By his " operations the French were enabled to repass the Rhine without considerable loss , and this retreat -was esteemed equally glorious with the greatest victory . The desperate valour of the English troops , who were placed in the rear , contributed-greatly tonsaye ^ the- ^' reBeh- army . They had been seized with equal passion as . the native troops of France for their brave general , and fought with ardour to revenge his death on the Germans . The Duke of Marlborougb , . then Captain Churchill , here learnt the rudiments of that art which he afterwards practised with such fatal success against France . ' - "

      Untitled Article

      NEW METROPOLITAN COMMISSION OF SEWERS . —MR . F . O . WARD'S STATEMENT . From the observations on Private-house and District Drainage which we have reported in our two Ia 9 fc papers , Mr . F . O . Ward proceeded to state his views on the important questions of Main Intercepting Drainage ( for the dispollutton of the Thames ) , and of the ^ Agricultural Utilisation of the sewage . — The subject of Main Intercepting Drainage , Mr . Ward saidj was one which he approached with more than ordinary diffidence , partly because of the many complex considerations involved in the difficult problem itself , partly because it had engaged the attention of several eminent engineers , in whose

      opinions he found himself unable entirely to coincide . And here he was anxious , having been held up as hostile to the engineering profession , and as having joined in imputing to members of their body a want of skill and judgment in sanitary matters , to disclaim witli nil his force any participation in such attacks , and to declare himself , on the contrary , a sincere admirer of that high and honourable profession , for the leading members of which he had always entertained a most sincere and unaffected esteem . Those men had gone forth from this country to every part of the civilised world—they had covered both hemispheres with railways , docks .

      harbours , . bridges , and other magnificent workseverywhere they had done honour to the English name , and to the genius of British civilisation ; and he looked up to them as the heroes of glorious victories , gained , not gver mere men , but over Nature and the rebellious elements . Nevertheless , if their views appeared to' him to require modification upon any sanitary point , it was his duty to express his opinions frankly , as frankly as he should himself acknowledge any error into which he might be shown to have fallen in discussing these vast and intricate problems . Now ,

      speaking in a spirit of tho utmost deference to the great men who had lent the sanction of their approval to the scheme of Intercepting Tunnels now before thorn , he must declare hie opinion , that that scheme , if executed in ita present form , would turn out , with reference to , tho . main objects in view , a costly failure . He should reserve , for the special debate on this subject , of which Sir J . Shelley had given notice , the detailed development Of his roasons for taking this view ; and in tho mean time ho would only say that hese tunnels would not thoroughly accomplish tho

      the excess would fiow as heretofore , through the existing outlets into the Thames . This circumstance involved the other evil he had mentioned—the nonimprovement of the existing levels of the sewers . The outfalls of the sewers would not , as the public imagined , be lowered , and brought into the deep tunnels . Those outfalls would have to be kept at their present levels in order to discharge the excess of sewage , during rainy weather , into the Thames . Thus , the dead level sewers of the south side—sewers which could be flushed either way indifferently , and which were three days emptying themselves when filled by ^ a storm , so sluggish was their flow—all these would have to remain level , in order that the sewage , when g

      dispollution of the Thames , nor improve , as was supposed , the levels of the main sewers , nor put an end to the accumulation of deposits , nor effect that beneficial sanitary revolution which powerful organs of the press had led the public to expect . Neither the tunnels , nor the pumping power provided ,, were adequate to . carry away the Bewage when swollen by very ordinary showers . Rain coming down , as it very commonly did , at a greater rate than 1-lOOth of an inch per hour ( heavy showers , tney were aware , came down at the rate of an inch , and storms at the rate of two inches and upwards ,-per hour ) , all such rain , he said * would swell the sewage beyond the discharing power of the tunnels , and

      swollen by rains , might pass off into the Thames . So again , the evils of ponding up the sewage would continue whenever rain happened to fall at high water , in quantities exceeding the limited amount capable of being discharged by the tunnels and raised by the pumping engines . On the other hand , when rain in excess fell at low water , the sewage discharged would be carried some twelve miles up the river by the rising tide , then thirteen . or fourteen miles down with the ebb , then twelve miles up again with the flood , and so on tide after tide , passing the point of discharge half a dozen times , and only working its passage a couple of miles or so down the river at each tide , so as to keep the tide-way of the Thames within the London area polluted with sewage , not merely at

      the moment of its discharge , but during all these subsequent tidal oscillations ^ Thus , one day in twelve of sewage-discharge would be tantamount to one day in eight of river-pollution . It was said , he knew , that the overflow of the sewers on these occasions would be mere rain water ; but whoever had noticed the stream issuing from the sewers ' mouths during heavy rain would be able , he thought , to judge whether the admission of such blacklooking contributions could be held compatible with the desired dispollution of the river . He believed , on the contrary , that whenever heavy rain followed drought , as often happened in the hot months , vast accumulations of offensive deposit from the more badly sloped of the sewers would be swept to the river ; an evil which the interception of the upland rainfall from the sewers below would tend to

      increase , by diminishing their ordinary scour . And this ~ be ~ it ^ observed ; -niight-sometime 8 " -happen ~ at epidemic seasons , just when a pestiferous outgush of foul matter would be among the evils most of alt to be avoided . Would such a result , he asked himself , satisfy their fellow-citizens ? Would they be content if , after having contributed their three millions sterling , and waited five or six years for the result , they should find the stink of their streets and the befouling of their river only partially abated , not done away with ? For his part , he thought not . He believed that no such partial measures would satisfy the public , who would , he thought , justly consider that if pollution of the Thames were wrong

      for seven days , it could not be right on the eighth ; and that , if the retention of stagnant deposit under our houses and streets were a recognised source of disease and mortality , means should be devised for its continual and complete' evacuation , at any cost in reason . So again , with respect to the marshy water-logged districts lying near the river , below high-water mark , those districts measured only about 4600 acres , or very little more than onetenth the area of the great Haarlem Lake—a lake which covered 45 , 230 acres , and had formerly an average depth of fourteen feet , which received , moreover , 36 , 000 , 000 tons of rainfall per month-, besides upland flood , and which had been ,

      nevertheless , dried , and was kept dry , by three steamengines of 350 horse-power each , worked at an expense of only 4500 / . a year . Surely , with such an example before us , wo should endeavour to dry the water-logged soil of those low levels , instead of leaving them as at present , for the sake of a lew thousands of pounds a year , to remain a sort of sodden swamp in the heart of our metropolis . We employed steam-engines for every conceivable purpose-r-to transport us on railways and rivers , and across mighty oceans , to weave our clothing , to produce a thousand articles of use or luxury , among other things , tp pump water into our towns ; why should we be niggardly in the application of a few hundred , or even , if needful , a few thousand horsepower , to dry the soil of our cities , and to rid us of

      Untitled Article

      ft TH |^ A . PJ B , | Satu » day ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 6, 1855, page 8, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2072/page/8/