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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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    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

• Citation
  • 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/