SAN !)<)MIN(,<>. 



SEWAGE. 



677 



on July 13th, and communicated it to 

 , \\ In. immediately sciit. in a 

 message to Congivs-*, concluding \vitli these 

 \vonl-: "The measure will, nevertheless, sue- 

 in the end, for it is a necessity in the 

 VMS of humanity, whose unseen agent is 

 Providence i: I, 4 .' 1 Colonel Fabens returned 

 to t!u> I'liil."! States, and, as Dominican min- 

 ister to Washington, was clothed with ample 

 ]>o\ver to renew negotiations with the Am -ri- 

 can Government for a treaty of annexation, 

 and to propose such modifications of the old 

 treaty as circumstances might demand, in order 

 to meet within reasonable limits the objections 

 of the opponents of the measure. Although 

 the treaty, in its actunl shape, had been reject- 

 ed at Washington, the protectorate of the 

 country by the United States was extended for 

 one year from July, 1870. 



The condition of the island, during the year 

 1870, was any thing but satisfactory. In Janu- 

 ary, General Cabral, the leader of the revolu- 

 tionists, issued a protest against the occupa- 

 tion of Samana by the United States. Forty- 

 five of the inhabitants of the capital, who sup- 

 ported the protest, were banished from the 

 country. In April, President Baez issued a 

 decree outlawing Cabral, stating as the reason 

 that Cabral was at Polo, at the head of insur- 

 gents ; that ho did interfere with Salnavo and 

 his ministers and women and children, taking 

 them in the Dominican territory, inhumanly 

 butchering some of them, and, finally, selling 

 Salnave to his enemies to be shot, for the sum 

 of $5,000; that this was a crime against the 

 laws of the country and the constitution, and 

 an act of war against a nation with which the 

 country was at peace. The decree was as follows: 



ARTICLE 1. Setior Jose* Maria Cabral, formerly gen- 

 eral of the armies of the Dominican Republic, and 

 now acting as an officer or agent for carrying out the 

 projects of Hayti against this republic, is by this 

 manifesto declared an outlaw, and any person ia 

 authorized to seize and slay him. 



[The second article commands the executives of the 

 di Efferent districts to publish and carry out article first.] 

 Given at San Domingo, April 9, 1870, in the twenty- 

 ninth year of the independence, seventh of the 

 ^ration, and third of the regeneration. 



B. BA'EZ, President. 



Cabral marched from San Juan, on his way 

 to Azna, with 1,200 men, and General Oganda, 

 with 600 more, had left Neyba to join him in 

 this movement. An engagement took place 

 with the government troops at Biajama, in 

 which Cabral was successful, and took a num- 

 ber of prisoners. lie pursued the routed 

 troops of Baez until they reached Llaya, a 

 village three miles from Azua, where they 

 were refinforced and made a stand ; but Oabral 

 riL'ain defeated them with great slaughter, put- 

 ting thm to complete rout. 



During the month of November, the prov- 

 ince of Cibao rose in arms against the govern- 

 ment. A junction having been effected with 

 the other revolutionists, both armies were con- 

 centrating their forces toward the southwest, 



the insurgents having a force of 2,000 men, 

 wi-11 armed and drilled. 

 SKWA'JK, 1'ii.TitATiov OF TOWN*. The new 

 ! British Commission, appointed in 1808 

 to inquire into the best moans of preventing 

 the pollution of rivers, took np the subject 

 where the former commission had left it, that 

 is, after the Thames, the Lea, and the Aire and 

 Calder basins had been reported upon, :md 

 have now issued their report on the Mersey 

 and Ripple basins. They come to the same 

 conclusions as the former commission did in 

 respect of the irrigation of land with town 

 sewage being the best means of preventing the 

 pollution of rivers with it, as well as being the 

 most profitable in application ; but they state 

 the case in a different way to that in which 

 the former commission put it. They say that 

 sewage may be sufficiently purified to be 

 allo'wed to flow into any river or other water- 

 course, from which it is not intended to take 

 water for domestic use, by filtration through 

 sand or porous soil, as distinguished from the 

 view that some persons take of irrigation, 

 which is, that 'the sewage is purified by run- 

 ning over the surface of the land in a thin 

 sheet, parting with some of its manurial ele- 

 ments to the plants, and storing the remainder 

 in the top soil for the use of the next crop, or 

 rather for the use of the crop first sown after 

 reploughing the land ; whereas the present com- 

 missioners say that it is the filtration through 

 a sufficient thickness of sand or porous soil 

 that constitutes the efficiency of this method 

 of utilizing sewage; and that, therefore, its 

 purification is insured by passing it through 

 constructed filter-beds equally well as by pass- 

 ing it through the natural soil of the land. 

 This they have ascertained by experiments 

 with several kinds of soil, with sand, and with 

 sand mixed with coarsely-powdered chalk. 

 The difference between filtration through con- 

 structed filter-beds and through the soil of the 

 land is one not of efficiency of purification, but 

 of the profitable application of the sewage, the 

 former method being unremunerative, while 

 the latter is remunerative. But it is con- 

 solatory to know that, in places whore land 

 cannot be had for irrigation, the sewage may 

 yet be sufficiently purified to be allowed to 

 flow into rivers, although the value of the solid 

 part of the sewage which is retained may not 

 be of much value. The value of it will evident- 

 ly depend on the quickness with which it can 

 be extracted in respect of the length of the 

 time elapsing from its entry into the sewers to 

 its extraction at the outfall. Where the gradi- 

 ents are considerable, and the mean distance 

 of the outfall from the town is not very great, 

 it may be arrested in a fresh state; and, mixed 

 with street sweepings and other town refuse, 

 may become of considerable value; while, 

 where the gradients are slight, and the outfall 

 at a greater mean distance from the town, it 

 may become so far decomposed in its transit 

 as to bo of no value as a manure. 



