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INTov. 17, 1853.1 THE, READER. 1107
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MR. F. O. WARD ON THE SMALL TUNNEL SYSTE...
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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 Sardinian States. Their History, Gov...
to Italy , yet , judging the Italians by their own proverb , " who suffers deserves it ; " they are more entitled to sympathy than the French , to extenuation .. One after another the Italians prostrated themselves under the heel of their scornful conqueror . Chaki . es Emmanuel might yet have saved Piedmont , had he understood the hearts of his people , as well as did that conqueror , who ¦ wrote the Directory that " one regiment of Piedmontese troops was stronger than the whole Cisalpine republic . " But what little power was left to him among Ms subjects , Charles used to
suppress with undue hastiness , and even barbarity , all symptoms of revolt or dissatisfaction , that his own overbearing control , added to the miseries of the late taxation , gave rise to ; so * that when the French , having secured peace Avith Austria by the treaty of Campofarrino , had nothing more to dread or hope from the Sardinian king , they first incited his own subjects to rebel against 'him , and after exposing him to the most ignominious treatment , depriving him of all bixt the resemblance of royalty , they put the finishing stroke to their policy , by forcing him . to give over all his continental dominions into their hands ! Charles
Emmanuel signed his abdication and retired to the island of Sardinia , and for twenty-four years Piedmont remained passive in the hands of strangers , shifted from one to the other , regardless of her own destinies , or of her royal rulers in their exile . At the termination of that period , when Europe awoie from her slumbers to league against Napoleon , whom France , consistent always inner inconstancy , deserted in his hour of need , "V . ctor Emmanuel I . received permission to take possession of his brother's dominions , who had ceded them in his favour .
By virtue of the infamous Vienna parchment , which * must reflect eternal shame on all whose signatures are affixed thereto , Genoa — "whose Ligurian traditions of republicanism and freedona made the idea of a union with the Piedmontese monarchy odious in the extreme—Genoa was , regardless of Her menaces and protestations , annexed to the continental dominions of the King of Sardinia . Russia and Prussia , intent on crushing the nationalities round their immediate domains , were willing that Austria should be recognised " as legitimate sovereign of Tetria , Dalmatia , Venice , the islands hitherto belonging to the Venetians in the Adriatic , the duchies of Milan and Mantua , the Tyrol , Friuli , Trieste , Carriahi ,
Upper Carinthia , etc ., and also of the valteline , Barrino Chiavenna , and the territories formerly constituting the Republic of Ragusa . " So decreed Austria , Spain , France , Portugal , Prussia , Russia , Sweden , and Great Britain , "in the name of the hol y and undivided Trinity . " In the name of "God and humanit }' , " Italy also awakened , in silence and in weakness it might be , hut no less solemnly , registered a different vow . Piedmont has began to fulfil it , is fulfilling it ; every Italian state and Italian heart will aid her to fulfil it , until in letter and in sp irit that oath shall be accomplished . Then let the abovementioned nations , at war already among themselves , remember their decree . f
. The first cry that greeted Victor Emmakuki after his welcome to his hereditary dominions , was that " Gucrra ai Tedcschi , " which from , time immemorial had rung , and does still ring , in the cars of Italian princes . On this war ngainst the Austrians on national grounds , and on the winning a constitution for themselves , the minds of all the Piedmontesc were , bent . They saw that their king , despite the grudges that he ought to feel for Auntrian treachery and Austrian desertion , was willing to settle down by the Hide of the traitors , gloating on the booty that their treachery
had won . They saw that their king was intent on restoring the ancient regime ; that by his lettres da cachet he intended to set aside all law and the administration of justice when it interfered with hia royal will . The Genoese vowed fiercely that if they must be subject to kingly yoke they would submit to no tyrant . The Picdmontcae were glad $ o huvc their king among them , they had suffered much and learned n > uch during the last twentytoitx years of the horrors of anarchy and of civil W « r ; they desired to go hnnd-in-hand with their jrulera 5 to be subjects , but not slaves . Their demands were reasonable but the king was inexorable . Too arbitrary to yield , too weak to resist ,
he abdicated his crown in favour of his brother Charles Felix , and appointed Charles Albert , Prince of Carignano , regent in his absence . Had he ascended the throne as king , instead of as regent , at that critical juncture , it is probable that the whole aspect of Italian affairs , would have been changed . In a concluding article we will try and enter into the merits and demerits of the deeds and character of this man who , had he been a Cromwell or a Luther , might have given back Italy to the Italians ; who , as Charles Albert , with all his shortcomings and failings , did re-make a kingdom out of the disjointed , disunited Sardinian States ; did consolidate it , did reform it , did give it to Italy as a bulwark and a foreshadowing of that which is to come .
Intov. 17, 1853.1 The, Reader. 1107
INTov . 17 , 1853 . 1 THE , READER . 1107
Mr. F. O. Ward On The Small Tunnel Syste...
MR . F . O . WARD ON THE SMALL TUNNEL SYSTEM . The controversy between Mr . F . O . Ward on the one hand , and Messrs . Stephenson , Cubitt , and Bidder , the eminent engineers , on the other , has been continued during the week with considerable vigour . Mr . Stephenson , calculating by a formula , propounds , for the North-side main drainage , colossal tunnels , costing 1 , 600 , 000 / . ; Mr . F . O . Ward , relying on the experience of Mr . Roe , vho , it appears , passed twenty years in experimenting on the run of the Fleet sewer in all
weathers , fixes less than half this size and cost as ample for the purpose . Mr . Ward holds out a saving of three-quarters of a million sterling on the north side alone ; and a still larger relative economy on the south . He advocates , with this view , the main drainage scheme put iu by Mr . Hoe ; and he shows that , to defeat this formidable rival , Messrs . SxEPiifiNsoK , Cubitt , and Bazalgette , have had recourse to expedients by no means of a creditable nature . This , we think , appears plainly from the subjoined passage in a letter published by Mr . Ward , in the Daily News of Thursday last .
The point in question , in this passage , we must premise , is the alleged misquotation by Mr . Stepiienson' of the declivity and drainage area of his great High level tunnel , in order to bring it into factitious conformity with a formula which had been employed to show Mr . Roe ' s tunnel inadequate to the duty required of it . This misquotation , Mr . Bidder describes as only an " apparent discrepancy ; " adding , that Mr . Stuphenson had explained this to Mr . Ward , at an interview at Lord Ebrington's house , but that , in consequence of Mr . Ward ' s " superficial knowledge , " the explanation had failed to produce " any clear conception in his mind . " Mr . Ward ' s reply is as follows : —
The discrepancy in question is not an apparent , but a real one . It is of the utmost importance . It involves tho whole question , whether the high level floodiiitrrception , which particularly characterizes Mr . Bazal gettc ' plan , can or cannot be accomplished by the tunnel designed for the purpose , tested by the same formula which is employed to test John Roe ' s . I will , therefore , concisely explain this point . The outfall length of the High-level line , running from Huckney to the Lea , stands d ' ruwn to scale , and , figured in red ink , in our published sections , as falling 1 in 1 , 359 ; which declivity is also printed , opposite the snme sewer , in Table 1 of the North-side Druinoge Report . _ . . _ zal
The duty assigned to this sewer by Mr . Bagctte , at page 1 of his High-level Report , is " tho diversion of Llio whole of the sewage » nd flood-waters of M square miles of the upper districts . " Nothing can be plainer than this statement , coupled with the sections . The ' whole of the flood-waters " from " 11 tujuiire miWis" ure to go through a tunnel of 12 feet C ) inches diameter , falling 1 in 1 , 359 . On the 30 th October , 1851 , Mr . Buzulgette reported against John line ' s plan : ( showing by tho old formula ( hut John Roe ' a 7 foot f > tunnel , falling I in 480 , and proposed as a flood line for seven square miles has a currying power of only 15 , 000 cubic feet per minute jigniiist a duty of 28 , 000 ; and thereforo is too small . Tried by the s . iinc forinulii Mr . lJazalgcttc ' h own Highlevel auwer is inadequate to the duty he assigns it ; for Iho duty ia MJ . OOO cubi <; feet per minute , und the carrying i . ower only 32000 .
, On the 11 ih of December following , two months uflor Mr . Bazulgette had committed himself to this moilo of calculation , Mr . Stophonson , in bit * turn , reported on Mr . Roo'a plan . How could he confirm Mr . Hazulgctte ' s calculations against John Rue , yet save Mr . JBazalgette ' H High level line from condemnation on similar grounds ? If the nominal duty of Mr . Bassulgetto ' s tunnel could be reduced , and Its nominul dioohurging power inercubed , the two might be brought ; into apparent
conformity ; and the condemnation , while holding good as against John Roe , might be averted * from Mr . Bazalgette . Mr . Stepherison may have been totally unconscious of the effect of the course here indicated ; but it iB precisely the course he pursued . He reduced Mr . Bazalgette ' s flood area from 14 square miles to 7 ; and increased the slope of the tunnel from 1 in 1 , 359 to 1 in 600 . The duty was thus brought dorirn to 45 , 000 cubic feet per minute ; while the carrying power was raised to 47 , 000 cubic feet per minute . The condemnatoryformula held good as against John Roe ; but Mr . Bazalgette ' s line was saved .
The passage of Mr . Stephenson * s report , in which the duty and carrying power of Mr . Bazalgette ' s High-level sewer are thus brought into factitious conformity with the formula employed against John Roe , contains , in a parenthesis , the remarkable -words " as already explained * . " These words are surely misplaced in a paragraph which reverses all previous explanations j and quotes , the one doubled , the other halved , the slope and flood-area set forth in all previous documents . The sewer " a * previously explained " was shown taking off the upper Fleet-valley flood tvaters to the Lea ; the same sewer , as now newly explained , ia shown letting the bulk of those floods rush down the Fleet river to the Thames . The w ords " as already explained " scarcely do justice to the suddenness and magnitude of changas such as these .
One more remark before I quote this singular passage . It will be observed that the reduction of flood area is so put as not to attract the notice of a cursory reader . It takes a good deal of study to detect that the maximum floods ( which govern the size of a flood line ) are to be taken , not as before from fourteen square miles , but only from seven . That it is so , however , stands proved by the redaction of the duty from 59 , 000 to 45 , 000 cubic feet per minute . I now give Mr . Stephenson ' s language verbatim : " The High-level sewer (" as already explained ) must act as a drainage sewer for seven square miles , and remove the sewage , and a portion of the storm waters , from another seven square miles , estimated at about 45 , 000 cubic feet per minute . The lower portion of the sewer , designed for this purpose , would discharge 47 , 000 cubic feet per minute , being 1 . 2 ft . 6 in . in diameter , with a fall of 1 in 600 . "
Can a fall of 1 in 600 be more plainly affirmed than here ? Can such language be fairly construed to imply a fall of 1 in 1 , 359 , brought up to iin equality with 1 in 600 by working the sewer under pressure , so that the sewage , accumulating in the tunnel above , would , by its hydraulic head , . force a passage below ? For what reason should we build a sewer thus afflicted ( if I may so say ) wiih congenital stricture ? Why gratuitously create , in the Huckney valley , the evils we deplore in the river-side districts—the outward pressure and flooding below , the retarded current and deposit above ? Why not at once cure the stricture by a few simple adjustments of relative size , calculated to bring about a real conformity between carrying power and duty ? interview to which
When Mr . Stephenson , at tho reference has been , made , offered this explanation of the discrepancy , I felt it my bounden duty as a Commissioner to declare to him , in the plainest terms , that 1 considered his explanation inadmissible , and that 1 maintained my objection in ull its original force . To the Tubular controversy , of which this lunncl question is , according to Mr . Ward , the logical development , he adverts as a debute whicn may now be regarded as closed , observing : —• Last year , no doubt , a commission of eminent engineers declared my views on tubular drainage utterly opposed to sound principle und practice ; and they protested by a resignation en rnatiso against the adoption or those views by the Government . But , during the pre-Bent year , the successors of that body have , I am happy to sav . at mv instance , caused several hundreds of pipe
sewers to bo dug down on and examined , with results so satisfactory us to place the bucc « bs of the tubular aystein beyond all further contestation . Moth in tne metropolis and in the provinces that system is now being extended with extraordinary rapidity ; und 1 no longer hebitate to mention cases which a few years ago would huve raiaed a . shout of derision . Thus , * < j aI » point out to Mr . Bidder , the metropolis , 250 middlonized hous < s druincd in combination through a single 6-ii . cli pipe : which dues the work perfectly , and is tne cleaner for its abundant scour . The sewage ;»» r » °° f ? waters of considerable towns now |> ass through l- > ana 20-inch pipes -Bizoa which , in the old « iay « of UricK , were not thought excessive for a kiiib Ic Jl"uj" - f VA drainage is , in fact , a settled question - « J " '" ft fought and won-a ,, d with wl » i «« } »''<' " «« "K / but no more . Aly bu * i » ew at pre « . out id not with tubes duc
tU "' B « i > p « charges Mr . Wakb ¦ v £ h having a ^ HSSS ^ S *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111855/page/15/
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