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racteristic must have been a certain agreeable Mid gentlemanly respectability . — " A gentlemanly man ; " that is the character given of him by his neighbours . Not elever in his profession , " but gentlemanly , " says the brother sxcrgeon ; which is doubtless as much as professional competition could allow . " A gentle - manly man "—says the reporter , describing Palmer seated in the jailor ' s pew at church—4 with a smiling countenance , and a decorous attention to the service . He would have been taken for a visitor . "
Every trait marks this all pervading respectability . He had a good house ; like Thurteix , lie " kept a gig , " and something more , a stud of horses , with a stable keeper . He knew when to put a present of game , and inivliat quarter . He knew how to keep a just record , and to behave like a jusfe man . His diary tells how * ' dear Anne" fell sick and . died ; and how , on the fbllowihg Sunday , he " took the Sacrament : " for the prayer-book never fails to make its
appearance at the proper moment . " When lie writes the letter to " dear Agnes , " immediately sif ter the death of his brother , asking one payment and hinting another , it is in no terms of a ditn > tnit rather in the tone of a benefactor , -who has cramped himself by aiding an erring br o ther , " many , many times , " and who feels that ii is only just to the widow if he furnishes her with the opportunity of doing her duty by the dear departed .
The effect of " this well-sustained detnearumr is perceptible all round . A medicajL neighbour writes to an insurance office , when the question , of Walter Palmer ' s policy is under discussion , pointing out that the -wife had died , and that in her case payment on the policy was claimed after payment of the first premium . Yet this medical gentleman appears not to have raised any whisper against a man of ¦ w hom , so awful a suspicion was written confidentially . George Bate thought of signing a proposal for a policy , and boltiivg to the
continent 5 Cook understood Bate ' s reluctance ; yet neither Cook nor Bate informed . The respectability of Mr . Palmee ' s position , his gentlemanly manners , had their influence even over the official functionaries- The postmaster was willing to place correspondence at his service , although to be found out in doing so was absolute dismissal , ruin , and imprisonment . The Coroner receives the present of game , and a private letter intimating that in the case of Cook , Palmer would like a verdict of " death from natural causes . "
Suspicions evidently crossed the minds of many , yet what do we learn from the facts ? These persons dared to let their fellow-creatures pass away mysteriously ; dared to guess at the cause of their death 5 and dared not challenge the respectable Mr . Palmer . Now there never y « t was an irresponsible power in existence that did not abtise its irresponsibility ,
and iihat did not , besides tyranny , cover an "unspeakable amount of corruption and crime . The Cjesars , who- could do what they liked , did what men abhorred . Respectability -which can thus defy question , even after suspicion has been excited , must , we know it from every history of power , cover a correlative amount of corruption and crime .
Professor Taylor tells us he lias had within the year a hundred and more cases of pojsoniag ; poison is not the only form of crime which human ingenuity has invented ; and Palmer is not the only respectable man in England .
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street , Soho , on Tuesday , the 30 th day of October . " This document contains a summary of Mr . ~ F . O . Ward ' s charges against Mr . Bazalgette , now for the first time printed in an authentic form . As several members of the new Board of Works will , it is believed , advocate the appointment of Mr . Bazalgette as engineer to the Board , an appointment which would imply the Board ' s approbation of his conduct , and adoption of his colossal tunnels , costing £ 874 , 000 more than those designed by Mr . Roe , it appears essential , at the present juncture , to fix public attention on this important document , -which charges Mr . Bazalgette , and the engineers identified with him , in manner following : —
ployed , and by endeavouring to expuaige as an asBisttant ' s error , three pages of calculations ; in another case ( in your Consulting Engineers' Report ) , by vary . ing a declivity From 1 in 1 , 350 to 1 in GOO , and at the same time reducing the discharge required ; in another case , by describing as 4 ft . 6 in . by 2 ft . 9 in ., a Fewei . which is really 5 ft . by 3 ft . 4 in . : " That the calculations for the south side , ordered "by the Court , Lave been wholly omitted to bo returned , and that o . n testing the south side hi yh . level sewer by each of the three formulae emp loyed to justify those on the north side , it is found that neither formula fits .
" That the pr ivate use of an unpublished formula communicated by an individual , has rendered that individual virtually our adviser on the question of sizes , and this on a formula not yet before the -world and iu opposition to liis own previously published views ; which matters are such as we o \ ight to have been allowed to judge of , especiall y as controverted points of crave importance were involved .
" That the confidential nature of the communication above referred to , might have justified Mr . Bazalgette in declining to make a return of h ' m formula , but could not justify him iu returning one when he used another . Had he adopted tlie former course we should have been free to jud ge whether we would or would not rely in so grave . a matter on individual authority , and on an unpublished formula . "
The extreme importance of these charges at the present crisis , when the fortunes of ( ho new Board of Works turn on their getting as their engineer the " right man in the right place , " has induced us to make inquiry , in every accessible quarter , as W the hi story of the case , which appears to "be shortly as follows : —¦
As a member of the ^ late Commission of Sewers , Mr . F . O . Ward found it his duty to study closely the plan of main intercepting drainage , proposed by Messrs . Bazai . gj-tte mid Haywood , and approved by Messrs . Stephexson and CrB-rrT ; their estimate being , for the north side only , j £ l ; 627 , 000 . In contrast Mth this plnn Mr . Wai : t > had
also to study the plan proposed , for accomplishing precisely the same " object , ~\^ y Mr . John Roe , at a cost of only £ 753 ^ 000 . The magnitude of the saving proposed by Mr . Roe—no less tlian £ 874 , 000—led to investigation as to the relative value of Mr . Roe ' s judgment , compared with that oi Messrs . Stepiienson nnd Curitt , in drainage matters .
From this investigation it appeared that Messrs . Stepiienson nnd Cubitt , though eminent ns railway engineers , had no experience in matters of town drainage , to compare with that of Mr . John Roe . Mr . Roe was for upwards of twenty years engineering surveyor to the Holborn and Finsbury Sewers Commission . In that capacity lie introduced all the great improvements in the modern
system of town drainage ; ns , for instance , the egg-slinped sewers , which , thongli at first violently opposed , ' nrc now universally adopted ; the method of flushing away deposit , with water , instead of lifting it by band labour ami carting it away at great cost ; the plan ( if drainin g houses in combination , by short branches , at a great reduction of cost , ; ' the use of stoneware pipes at a third of the cost of brick drains , lor houses and minor streets—u
practice at first violently opposed , like the egg-shaped sewers , but now universal —scotch of pi"ovincia . l towns being thus dminrd , niul in London alone between 200 and ' M 0 miles of pipe sewers and drains being in successful operation , and in course of nipid extension-Mr . Rf > K also paid great attention to the velocity of flow in powers , and to ibeir
discharging power ; which he found to exceed very considerabl y what had been previously supposed ; and he was thus enabled greatly to redtice the size and cost of the . sewers in bin district ; the saving in one instance being no less than £ 2 2 a . a foot , amounting to , £ 4 , 0 O (> on a single length of sewer . The result oi these and other improvements w « h that Mr-Roe saved , on nn average , £ 8 , 000 a-yenr to
"That after solemnly stating to us , in a printed return entitled ' Data , ' that a certain specified mode of computation was used , it has turned out that Mr . Bazalgette used two modes . " That of the two , one was publicly stated , the other kept undivulged . " That the public one required for given , ram-falls a much greater discharging power than the one reserved for secret use . . " That these two modes of calculation -were used alternately by Mr . Bazalgette ; one to discredit a rival ' s tunnel in our eyes , the other to justify his own , which latter will not stand the teat of the published formula , as applied to his rival ' s tunnel .
" That the second mode of computation was only brought forward on compulsion , when the detailed calculations were insisted on ; that . even-then it was not stated and explained , but the mere sums dene by it inserted amongst a mass of figures confused and inaccurate to the iast degree , and loaded -with needlesssurplusage , so that without the closest investigation , it would have passed unnoticed . " That , increasing the perplexity-ihus occasioned , and still further baffling investigation , several tunnels were entered in duplicate in the calculatio ns , and computed twice over—namely , once by - the public mode , and once by the secret one ; these duplicate calculations being so disposed as to elude observation .
" That when the calculations were unexpectedly ordered to be printed , and the probf was brought before the Court , several pages of these double enti-ies were sought to be eliminated as mere matters of ordinary revision . " That the responsibility of these double entries and other errors in the calculations is now sought to be laid on an assistant , on whom such responsibility cannot properly devolve . " That upon investigation it turns out , that the second mode of calculation , or formula , substantially embodies , though , as employed by Mr . Bazalgette , it misapplies , the invaluable experience of John Roe , the very rival on whose plan discredit was sought to be thrown by the application of the firat formula ; a fact which , it is submitted ,, stamps the transaction with an unusual want of generosity .
" That whereas John Roe carne before us in a plain straightforward way , resting on no formula at all , but on his observations of the flow in sewers , and in the Fleet River , carried on by day and night for twenty years ; and whereas he , with a generous frankness , freely gave hia advice , and the re sults of his long experience to our engineers , by whom ho was several times consulted ; a corresponding degree of candour has not bceu shown to wnrdw him , but the benefit of the second formula , which sub stantially embodies hi » experience , has been denied him ; nnd that he has further been hold up as , having blundered , on account of an error which , was not hie , but his assailant ' s , which fact was subsequently admitted in such ambiguous terms , aa to seem still to fix the blunder on him .
" That tho question between John Itoe and our engineers , is no mere questiou of rival formula , or rival opinions , but a question of oxpox'ienco ngniiwt formuloo , and of facts against opiniona . " That thin question involves public interests of Tast magnitude , amounting to . £ 500 , 000 in tho matter of the Metropolitan Intercepting Drainage alono , nnd probably of millions sterling , in like cases , throughout this country and Europe . "That it was therefore a question requiring on tho port of your engineer an extraordinary degree of oaro us well us -candour , whioh it in eubwuittotl have not been , shown .
Taw ^^ ™ m AISr 3 D THE VACANT BNGL NESftSHll ? OF THE BOARD OF WQBKS . We hwre received » copy of 4 ho " Concise M » Kux *« st of Proceedings at a Special Court of Sewewj bolder * at th « OoUKt ^ ouae , in
Greek" That engineering orrora of greator or Iosh importance , manifesting want of caro , exist in your ongi » e « r 1 s deeigp and reports , and that certain of these errQTB were sought to b « disguised ; in one onse by varying a declivity from 1 to 20 in one part of the document -to 1 to 652 in another , —by intioduoUig a third formula giving 8 per cent , more discharge than fcli © first , which was ctcc 3 ared to be tb « only one ora-
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62 THE LEADER . [ No . 304 , Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 19, 1856, page 62, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2124/page/14/
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