LORD CARLISLE'S NUISANCES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
London, 10th July 1849. Sin—When a housemaid contents herself (as many will) with sweeping the dust and flue under the beds or sofas, instead of carefully removing it to the dust- hole, she is, on discovery of her sluttishness, reprimanded, and on perseverance in her evil ways dismissed. No one of the inhabitants of this metropolis doubts what to do in such a case in his own household; yet we all of us are, individually or collectively, actively or passively, acting in an analogous way in respect of those more offensive matters which are, by the intervention of our housemaids and drains, intrusted to the care of the Earl of Carlisle and the other members of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers. Part of this subject, viz. the contamination of the river Thames by the offen- sive matter poured into it by all the sewers of the metropolis, and the consequent injury to the public health, was remarked on by you last Saturday. There can be little doubt, indeed, that to this sluttish practice many a death is owing, and that pleasure-seekers and men of business, chance passengers and convicts in the hulks, do, and not unfrequently, fall victims to our perfunctory cleanliness: but as we are committed to a system of sewers instead of cesspools, it will take time and caution to devise a remedy for that evil. In the mean time, I would solicit your animadversion on the miasma now perceivable in all our thoroughfares. Since the weather has become warm, it has been impossible to walk a hundred yards through any street without being conscious of an unpleasant smell, some- times faint, sometimes powerful, but always proceeding from the large iron gra- tings which are placed in the gutters next the curb-stone, and are celled galley- holes. On every such grating in my neighbourhood may be read the words "Westminster Sewers": they are therefore now under the control of the Metro- politan Commissioners of Sewers; and as a further consequence, the effluvium as- cends from the street into the air, in spite of the precautions or the negligence of the aforesaid Earl of Carlisle and his brother Commissioners.
A gulleyhole is, however, by no means a mysterious thing. It is simply an opening through which water, dust, &c., may descend into the common sewer; and the safe descent of these to their destination may be effected, and the ascent of any effluvium may be thoroughly prevented, in the way the same objects are accomplished in the case of every house-drain entering a common sewer,—that is to say, they may be trapped. It is evident that this mischief is of the same nature with the defilement of the river; that is, it arises from the conversion of the natural or artificial drainage of the surface into a sewer for the removal or deposit of the impurities arising from the occupation of man. A mere water-drain is not offensive, and there Is no necessity for a communication between the street and a sewer; but by making One channel serve both purposes, the effluvium ejected through the drain is enabled to return to the house by the gulleyhole and opened window.
The fitness of our present authorities to deal with the purification of the river will be shown by their zeal in dealing with the present evil. Individual exertion can only close the gulleyhole near its own residence; whilst the nuisance of the next street or the public thoroughfare can only be put down by the intervention of the public press. Under these circumstances, I am indud to appeal tofu, Sir.
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