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The City Commissioners of Sewers held a meeting on Saturday, under the chairmanship of Mr. Deputy Peacock. Mr. Deputy Harrison moved an amendment to the New Gas Bill, calculated to alter its whole scope. As it was last agreed to, it empowered the borrowing of 500,0001. for the pur- chase of the gas-works of the City Gas Companies. Mr. Harrison moved that the Commissioners be empowered to raise only 100,0001., for the pur- pose of buying mains and pipes to be used in distributing gas taken by con- tract from the companies; in or out of the City, who made the best offers. After a warm debate, this amendment was carried, by 14 votes to 13; and the amended bill was ultimately approved of, by 7 votes to 6.
The City of London Sewers Act comes into operation on Monday next. The 89th section of the act refers to the general difficulty and the fre- quent inability under which the poor labour in finding a fit and proper place for the deposit of their dead before burial: it therefore enacts, that the City Commissioners of Sewers, if they think fit, may establish a depo- sitory wherein the poor shall be permitted to place their dead to be de- cently taken care of till interment. The act provides, under penalties, that no interment shall be made in any grave which will not allow five feet of clear soil above the lid of the coffin.
The operative silk-weavers of Spitalfields and its vicinity held an ad- journed meeting on Bethnal Green last Saturday evening, and heard the report of a Committee appointed some weeks since to collect facts regard- ing the depression of the trade, and to lay them before the masters, in hopes of obtaining legislative protection against foreign competition. Mr. Thirston presided. Mr. Appeling stated some satisfactory and consoling circumstances. "Several meetings of the masters had been held; and at that moment a private assembly of these gentlemen was taking place in the district, at which it was by no means unlikely that something would be done. Some there were amongst the masters who objected to interfere in the matter, on the ground that, if free trade was effectually carried out, it would be eventually well with the trade at large: but so far as he bad been able, he had endeavoured to show that this was a fallacy and a great mistake. This the operatives well knew—that their state had been since 1826 getting worse and worse every year, until now that their position was frightful from the want of employment and the lowness of their wages. Some- thing better, however, was now promised. The silk-manufacturers had been in worstratkrivera4,,Meeig:rvrsieowfs Parliament whowihntoerfoesruilt oegrlyonviomcapotedrtatohte some-of-th rs of Parliament had begun to have serious misgivings as
sowid policy pursued upon this question. The manufacturers a Ministers of the Crown previously to the 1st of er the Parliament has assembled, the whole case, fully 1, may be laid before the Legislature." Mr. Vickers said, no workman laboured so hard as the English operative, and no workman was worse paid. The weavers did not wish to interfere in any political agitation; but when they found that, in spite of all their exertions and industry, they were compelled to live in poverty and destitution, they then began i to reflect and inquire into the causes of such a state of things. Mr. Bowles declared, that, through competition, society was brought into quite a chaotic state; starvation, and not employment, spreading far and wide on all hands amongst the unprotected operatives. It was the duty of the Govern. ment to interfere, and put a stop to such a frightful state of things; or the most lamentable results would follow. If there was anything like a protection to labour, the operatives would not act so injuriously to each other as they were now com- pelled to do in accordance with the practice of the trade.
Mr. Noquet, a trade's delegate, observed, that unless they had some regulation of their wages, prohibition would be useless; and Mr. Cutter, one of the Com- mittee, avowed that he had not much confidence in prohibition, unless it were as- sociated with some protection to labour, to prevent a ruinous competition among themselves. Competition was a deadly enemy to the working classes, and it was apparent that it operated most injuriously. Some more speeches were made; the report was read and adopted; and the meeting separated.
Under the spur of an aggrieved correspondent, the Morning Chronicle has vigorously assaulted the great prescriptive nuisance of Smithfield Cattle- market; and has put together some interesting sanatory facts. "There exists, amongst the Rolls of Parliament of the year 1380, a petition from the citizens of London, praying that, for the sake of the public health, meat should not be slaughtered nearer than Knyghts-brigg,' under penalty, not only of forfeiting such animals as might be killed in the butcherie,' but of a year's im- prisonment. The prayer of this petition was granted, and its penalties were en- forced during several reigns. In 1848, however, we are not so squeamish. In the course of a year, 220,000 head of cattle, and 1,500,000 sheep, are violently forced into an area of five acres, in the very heart of London, through its narrowest and most crowded thoroughfares; and are there sold, and there slaugh- tered, in the dark and undrained cellars, stables, and out-houses adjoining. The inhabitants and shopkeepers, on the line of march taken by these herds and flocks, are weekly flighted from their propriety by the transit of 4,000 oxen and 30,000 sheep, that are hurried along by reckless drovers, and maddened by sa- vage dogs. Scarcely a market-day passes without some grave accident, to man, beast, and property. It will scarcely be credited, that the foreign cattle and sheep which are sold in Smithfield receive, during their transit from the port of their embarkation to Blackwall—a period which varies from two to six days—not one drop of water, nor one atom of food. The deterioration of meat, from bruises and overdriving, is calculated, by butchers themselves, to amount, in Smithfield Market alone, to above 100,0001. a year." But the object of the journalist is sanatory: and in that point of view he gives, first a startling sanatory fact, and then a grotesque yet horrifying detail of knacker-yard secrets. The sanatory fact is this—" The medical men who practise in the city of London declare that cancerous and pulmonary affections have been enormously increased, of late years, by the quantity of meat unfit for human food, which is daily disposed of within the bills of mortality." These are the revelations of butcher-craft—" From the 1st day of January 1848 to the 7th of the following August, the Inspector of Smithfield Market confiscated, out of 120,000 cattle and 800,000 sheep, not one diseased beast, and but five dis- eased sheep. It was notorious at the time, that, on every market-day, no less than from 50 to 100 head of cattle, and several hundred sheep, calves, pigs, &c., in a fearfully morbid condition, were disposed of. One salesman alone sold weekly, for a considerable period, upwards of 100 sheep, consigned to him from abroad, which were afflicted with the smallpox. The sick animals are di- vided into three classes—' Choppers, Rough-tins, and Wet-uns.' The best are driven into the low slaughterhouses in Cow Cross Street and Sharp's Alley; are 'there cleaned, carried, and furbished up; and are then disposed of alive to the in- Terfor'clicis of butchers, residing in poor and densely-populated neighbour- hoods. Those in a more advanced state of disease are slaughtered and sold on the spot, to the compilers of German sausages, polonies, saveloys, and black puddings, and to the venders of h-la-mode beef, meat pies, and cheap soups. It may be interesting to epicures to learn, that the red tint, observable in London German sausages, is derived from a judicious admixture of horse-flesh: for glandered horses, cows which die in calving, and still-horn calves are all consi- dered as fair grist to the sausage-mills, which are to be heard in ?till drive in sus- picions proximity to the knackers' yards. The men employed in this foul work often die from accidentally inoculating themselves with the virus contained in the morbid meat which they prepare for public food. Tyler's Market is especially infamous for the measly quality of its pork, which is never outraged by the cen- sorious eye of an inspector.
" The obvious cause of this evil is, that in Smithfield and Newgate Markets, where inspectors are appointed, with full power to seize and confiscate such car- rion, the accommodation is so execrable that they cannot perform their duties at all; whilst in the other meat markets of London no such necessary supervision has been established."
A fatal disaster happened at the Victoria Theatre on " Boxing-night." As unusual crowd assembled at the gallery entrance, to secure good places for a sight of the pantomime. On the opening of the doors, the staircase became so crammed with struggling persons of all ages, that some of the weaker fainted. The people at the bottom of the stairs refusing to assist the retreat of those endeavouring to escape suffocation, the rails of the staircase were broken down, and a number of persons fell over on the heads of the crowd below. A panic arose, and in the rush which followed many were trampled to the earth. Two boys were killed, another is expected to die of his bruises, and a great number of boys and women are seriously hurt. Leonard Tutchin, a youth who was taken up insensible, states that some men wilfully added to the danger and alarm by their violent conduct. He offered one man sixpence to let him escape; but got the reply—" No; you are here, and we shall wedge you in as close as we can." The lad screamed " Murder !" on which the man lifted him up above the heads of his companions, and threw him over the bannister, on to the people below. He fell on a poor boy; whom he heard cry oat, " Oh, I am killed! " and soon became insensible himself.
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