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Nov. 1<* 1B55.I THE LEA DE R. 1077
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NAVAL AND MILITARY NEWS. " Fifty Lashes....
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MISCELLANEOIJS. Indxa and China.—-The In...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Drainage Question. The Dispute Betwe...
and myself . At least three of these reports have been printed by the Commissioners of Sewers . I have personally checked all the calculations ; the formula ; or rules used in making these calculations are those accepted by every engineer of hydraulic reputation ; of theiraccuracy I have no manner of doubt . I am therefore prepared to be personally answerable for the soundness of the principles and the accuracy of the details of the London sewage intercepting plan which Sir W . Cubitt and myself have approved as consulting engineers ; and I beg leave here to express in the most decided manner my full confidence in Mr . Bazalgette ' s professional skill and personal integrity , as well as my opinion that he has furnished the commissioners with all the information which he was bound to furnish .
With respect to Mr . Ward , I had an opportunity a few months ago ( at the house of a friend of that gentleman ) of expressing to him my opinion of the character of bis objections to Mr . Bazalgette ' s plans and calculations . I told him then that I could characterise his objections as nothing better than puerile . I adhere to that word . I am , sir , your obedient servant , Robert Stephenson . 24 , Great G-eorge-street , Westminster , Nov . 2 .
FROM MR . "WARD . To the EEitor of the Times . Sir , —I have read in the Times of this morning a letter by Mr . Robert Stephenson on the main intercepting drainage of London , and on the course which I have felt it my duty , as a Commissioner of Sewers , to pursue on that important question . Mr . Stephenson defends Mr . Bazalgette ' s plans and proceedings , which I impugn , and declares that he ( Mr . Stephenson ) has " personally checked all the engineer ' s calculations . '' I had been led to form a different opinion by the following passage in one of Mr . Stephenson ' s reportsthat on the north-side drainage : —
'* With reference to the dimensions of the proposed sewers , I have not been able to go into the details of the calculations ; but , having examined the tabular statements attached to the engineers' report , and having received explanations from tliem respecting the directions of the flow in the various sewers , I have every confidence in tbe correctness of their conclusions . *' I had been further induced to believe that Mr . Stephenson had bestowed but a cursory attention on Mr . Bazalgette ' s scheme by information which reached me that one of Mr . Stephenson ' s reports ( that on the high level interception ) was asked for one day , and sent in the next ; the day of its hasty production being also that of Mr . Stephenson ' s return from a long absence abroad .
I had moreover observed , in another of Mr . Stephenson s reports ( that against Mr . John Roe ' s plan ) errors so gross and palpable , that I could not , in common fairness , suppose them Mr . Stephenson ' s own , butfelt constrained to regard them as the work of subordinate hands , adopted by Mr . Stephenson with a too implicit confidence . Thus , for exam ple , I found Mi * . Stephenson maintaining , in support of a certain formula , which I and my friends impugn , that a certain sewer floods , because according to the formula it is too small , and that , to cure its flooding , it should , according to the formula , be increased to a certain size , which Mr . Stephenson names , but which size , on reference to our books , I find ' that it already exceeds .
Again , in the same report , I found an ill-proportioned tunnel brought into factitious conformity with the formula said to have been used in designing it , by a falso quotation of the area drained , and of the rate of declivity as stated « nd drawn in the engineer ' own sections and tables , the area hei » g reduced from 14 square miles to 7 , while the declivity i & increased from 1 in 1 , 359 to i in 600—a blunder too gross , CS » expedient too reprehensible , to be lightly assumed as :. ' conscious act of a gentleman occupying the highest rank ' . * " 8 l ) ro " fession . As , however , Mr . Stephenson now voluntarily accepts the position which I hesitated to assign him ; as he endorses calculation which I believe to be deceptive , and sanctions proceedings which I consider questionably it becomes noy duty , as a Commissioner , to include Mr . Stephenson in my inculpations of Mr . Bazalgette . That duty I now fulfil with reluctance , but without hesitation .
The main question at issue , bo far from being " intricate" and " puerile , " as Mr . Stephenson terms it , in in its broad features extromely simple , and in its pcbearings very important . In two words—it is a question of size and cost . How big must the intercepting tunnels bo t How much must the ratepayers spend on them ? Mr . Steplicnson , calculating by a formula , fixes 222 square / eet as the collective sectional area of the north-Bide tunnels , and ! , 627 , 0007 . as their collective coat . I and my friends , on the contrary , relying on Jolin Roe ' s observations of the run of tbe Fleet in all weathers for more than twenty years , and adopting (
nubject to modifications ) John Roe ' proposed lines and sizes , fix 108 square feet for the north-side tunnel capacity , and so reduce the cost to 753 , O 00 Z . Our object is to save , for north-side ^ ratepayers , three quarters of a million sterling of capital ( besides heavy annual pumping costs ) ; and the economy we aim at for the south side is relatively larger still . Whether we are right or wrong is a matter for technical decision , but we submit that our broad proposition is neither " intricate " nor " puerile . " It is clearly for the ratepayers' interest that the question we raise should be discussed ; nor can such a debate be properly suppressed by the weight of an eminent name .
This tunnel controversy is , in point of fact , only the tubular controversy renewed on a greater scale . We have carried , against the vehement opposition of the very engineers whom we now find against us , the substitution of small pipes for great culverts in the drainage of streets and houses . We have already saved for the public by that system , so strenuously decried up to a year ago , several hundreds of thousands sterling . We can point to scores of provincial towns drained on the new principle at a third of the cost of the old mode . We have already between 200 and 300 miles of pipe working successfully in the metropolis . And at Croydon , where the pipes were said to have caused an epidemic , the zymotic mortality has declined since their introduction ( partly , no doubt , because of their introduction ) , upwards of 40 per cent .
John Roe , the inventor of the tabular system ( and , I may add , of nearly all the great modern innovations in town drainage , such as flushing , combined works , egg' -shaped sewers , adjusted junctions , & c . ) now proposes an equivalent reduction in the size and cost of the main tunnels . To Jmeet this formidable opponent , to discredit his plans in our eyes , and to conceal his own errors , Mr . Bazalgette has resorted to means of which I , as a commissioner , have felt bound to express my strong disapproval . I have laid the case broadly before my colleaErues , and move the appointment of a mathematical committee , comprising two or three of such men as Professors Hall , De Morgan , Willis , Moseley , Wheatstone , Babbage , Sec , to decide on its technical points .
Before that tribunal I now challenge Mr . Stephenson to meet me . I am ready , with John Roe ' s experience , to oppose Mr . Stepbenson ' s assertions ; and , as vast sums of money hang on the issue , I have no fear that the public will regard the debate as '' puerile , * ' or submit to have it stifled by the peremptory dictum even of an eminent engineer . I have the honour to be , Sir , Sec , F . O . Ward . 12 , Cork-street , Burlington-gardens , Nov . 3 .
Nov. 1<* 1b55.I The Lea De R. 1077
Nov . 1 <* 1 B 55 . I THE LEA DE R . 1077
Naval And Military News. " Fifty Lashes....
NAVAL AND MILITARY NEWS . " Fifty Lashes . "—A court-martial on board the flag-ship Victory , in Portsmouth harbour , on James Vienor , ordinary seaman belonging to the Hastings , for deserting and enlisting in the 80 th Regiment of Foot , with intent to defraud the Queen , has terminated in a sentence of fifty lashes and hard labour for twelve months . The American Ship Cleopatra . —The ship Ballorat , Jones , of London , from Melbourne , which recently arrived in the London Docks , reports the
foundering of the American ship Cleopatra , of Boston , from Calloa . On September 26 , about noon , when in lut . 23-30 S ., long . 31 * 20 W ., shortened sail about seven miles from a strange sail . On approaching her , could not see any one about the decks ; the yards were knocking about , and no one was at the helm . At l' 30 p . m . the Uallarat lowered a boat , and Captain Jones boarded her , and found her abandoned and in a sinking state , the water washing over her sturboard rail . Found her to be the Cleopatra , of Boston ( United States ) , laden with guano .
Mysterious Death at Aloershott . —A soldier at Aldershott has been found dead , under circumstances suggestive of violence j and a comrade was discovered in the middle of the night in a state of insensibility from blows . Both men were believed to hnv'C been concerned in a drunken quarrel ; but the circumsttt .. ' ? 63 aie ap yet obscureu irl doubt . Escape of j ^ 'sonkks ok War . —Two more war prisoners have escaped iV . ?™ tha prison at Lewea .
Miscellaneoijs. Indxa And China.—-The In...
MISCELLANEOIJS . Indxa and China . — -The Intelligence from India rccciv « J by the li » Bt Overland Mail contains little else than reports of murderous outrages , insurrections , and petty warfare . Mr . H . V . Conolly , the British Collector of Mulubir and Provisional Member of Council at Madras , was murdered on tho 11 th of September by a party of fivo Moplahs , while seated in the verandah of hia house near Calicut . Two of his servunts , who , at the summons of his wife , came to his assistance , wore seriously hurt ; but thuy lulled in beating off the assassina , who inflicted no less than twenty-soven wounds on Mr . Conolly . Tho motive is supposed to be revenge , Mr . Conolly having lately succeeded in driving from the country a dangerous rullian belonging to tho Mopluh tribe , and having
zealously carried out the act for disarming that part of the population . Colonel Mackenzie has been attacked by a party of Mahometans , in one of whose noisy religious processions he had interfered . He was left fox dead , but there is great hope of his recovery . The same party made a furious onslaught on an English clergyman and some ladies . The ringleaders are now , however , in CU 8 tody . Three hundred insurrectionary Rohillas have bees defeated with great loss to themselves . In the territory of Guicowar , a disturbance arising out of a quarrel between the hostile Mussulman sects of Shias and Sonees has been pacified by Major Wallace , whose guns and infantry struck terror into fjhe rival factions . On the Peshawur frontier , an expedition against the mountaineers has been brought to a successful conclusion , several fortified villages having been destroyed by simultaneous attacks , in which a native ally assisted . Intelligence from Bokhara confirms the report of the murder of tho Khivan Khan . " The Russians , " says the Times Bombay Correspondent ,
" are stated to have made no further ** advances toward Kokan , but their presence in Toorkistan , and the advance of the Persians , appear to disquiet the King of Bokhara , who labours unceasingly to ingratiate himself with both the invading parties . " The Santals , though greatly controlled , are not completely crushed , as reported by the last mail ; and the religious quarrel in Oude appears to be far from settled , being indeed stimulated by a furious pamphlet exhorting the Mahometans to fight for the propagation of the faith . The dissensions betweea the Rana or Sacerdotal Chief of Oodeypore and his rebellious barons have induced the British Government to interfere on behalf of the liana . Hostilities are considered possible , and a force has been collected by Sir Henry Lawrence . Steam communication in British India ia receiving attention ; but railways progress slowly . —From China we have no intelligence of general interest . Canton continues quiet , and we hear nothing of the progress of the rebellion .
The Wreck at Raaisgate Harbour . —An inquest has been held on the bodies of the two men who were washed from the Colchester oyster-smack during the late gale at Kamsgate , and were drowned . The jury appended to their verdict of drowning a request that more efficient' means should be placed at the disposal of the harbour-master and the boatmen , to be used in saving life , the difficulty * l > eing very observable in this case . The evidence of the master of the smack was to the effect that the crew of the lifeboat did not seem to know how to manage her .
The Female Impostor . —A communication from Wolverhampton in the daily papers gives tho following p irticulars of Anastasia Haggard , alias Alice Grey , who , it now turns out , on the authority of the Inspector of Police at Limerick , is a native of Ireland , not of Scotland : — "At length it is accurately known who the extraordinary young woman , who has recently attracted so much attention throughout the country by her clever but most heartless impostures , really ia . Although , however , her parentage is established , her whole history is by no means yet fully revealed . Her career has been truly a checkered one . From being in reality the child of humble parents in Limerick , and living "with them at home , she soon becomes , on pretence , tha daughter of a doctor of divinity in England , and as such lives upwards
of twelve months in this country at the tables of the well-to-do in life . Then she is the assumed guilultss dupo of designing swindlers , even of boys , and of members also of her own sex—all emboldened to rob her , she would have it believed , because of her native innocence and truthfulness . Soon , however , she is metamorphosed into tbe imprisoned for false accusation , nnd ut other times for felony . Then she is a servant of all work in the metropolis , and a runaway ; next , tho wanctimonious inmate of tho Liverpool workhouse , attracting additional attention by her tales of high ancestral descent ; afterwards , a matron in service in the land of her birth , but
discharged thence for flagrant systematic lying ; then again the impostor and false prosecutor , and now tho imprisoned for porjury . She has been committed for trial ; and when leaving the court , she said to a gontlemau who sat nonr where she passed , " If you were that magistrate , I would pull your whisUors . " Hliehas written in prison a poetical attack upon the Rov . Mr . Morris . During one period of her cireor , she ia said to have described herself as a daughter of tho Uev . Dr . Hook . The following table shows tho number of persons charged with felony on tho information of this woman , and how they were disposed of : — , Towns . Apprehended . Discharged . Convicted . Birmingham .. . 1 .. 1 . - — Hath ... .. .. 1 . 1 • - — Bristot .. • .. 1 • 1 • —¦ Chester .. .. 3 \ Cork 2 - , ? " ~ Dublin .. .. .. 2 . ¦ ' * ^ Galway 1 • ° ¦ __ Glasgow and Greonock 8 > 8 *" Liverpool .. ft • ' "' London .. & ~ " Macroom .. .. 1 • " Wutorford .. 2 « ¦ £ Wolverlwnpton .. 4 . j ^ • j ^ 29 20 .. 9
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 10, 1855, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10111855/page/9/
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