120 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[Apinl, 



takiiifr trade from the Freneli, perhaps by sending goods into 

 France itself. 



The French have a great fear of our trade, they believe that we 

 sway the world hy our trade, and they wish to wrest it from us — 

 they hefjin the strugirle hy throwing aside their best weapons. To 

 be great in trade, France should draw money and skill from the 

 whole world ; it sliould have clu)sen and ]iicked men, whether from 

 France or abroad. It should he the star to which men of mind 

 and skill should look, as shining with the best hope of reward. The 

 Mow dealt at the Enp:lish strikes elsewhere. It is not only the 

 Englislmian wlio is forljidden to take his stock, his knowledge, and 

 his skill to France, but it is every man wlio is willing and ready to 

 do so. The Italian, the Spaniard, the German is forbidden, and 

 shut out as much as the Englishman. France is shut against the 

 world as much as China was, — there is no held for any but French- 

 men. 



^ye wish we could speak more hopefully, that we could cast a 

 brighter look on France, but we feel we cannot with truth speak 

 otherwise than we have. M'e believe we liave spoken fairly, while 

 we are sure that England, however it may wish that it had been 

 otherwise, is the least harmed by the Ijreach which has thus been 

 made in the ties of fellowship' which so lately knit the two 

 together. 



HEALTH OF TOWNS BILL^ 



The promised hill for securing the health of towns is again before 

 the legislature ; and we hope with some prospects of success. To 

 thegeneral principles of the measure wearemostfavoural)le,because 

 we have long laboured to obtain an amendment of the very serious 

 evils wliich so much aifect the public health. At the same time, 

 there are many clauses which require great and grave considera- 

 tion before they become law ; and in making some remarks upon 

 them, we do so'without any hostility to the bill generally. 



In clause 8, iifty householders have the power of putting the 

 act in motion. In large towns, such a number gives the power to 

 an insignificant minority ; and in small towns, fifty may he found 

 too many. There ought either to be a proportional number, ac- 

 cording to the population of the town. 



Although the eiglith clause speaks of existing local boards, we do 

 not find any provision for their abolition ; and we therefore expect 

 that great confusion will arise between the new local boards of 

 health and the old local boards, for paving, cleansing, highways, 

 sewers, and for other purposes. Great confusion must likewise 

 arise from the election of new officers, who will be brought in con- 

 flict with the present clerks and surveyors. 



The qualification of elected members of local boards seems too 

 liigh for small towns. The number of inhabitants rated at thirty 

 pounds a year is so small as to restrict the choice of the electors. 



We think the provision for contour lines in clause 27, is useful ; 

 but if the lines are taken at every ten feet elevation, it will be 

 quite enough. 



By clause 29, the board of health will have the power of carry- 

 ing a sewer or drain " through or under an;/ kinds whatsoever." Surely 

 this will never be allowed to pass ; this power will enable any 

 sewei- to be carried across a garden, pleasure-ground, or park, 

 without any notice or compensation. 



Clause 35 requires that notice of building a house shall be 

 given to the local board of health fourteen days, and that works 

 shall not be begun without leave of the board. Seven days seems 

 to us quite time enough, and the works should proceed unless the 

 board can show some objection to them. 



It appears very unlikely that clause 42 will be found prac- 

 ticable. It provides for engine and factory chimnies consuming 

 their own smoke. 



Clause 49, although aimed at great evils, is very objectionable ; 

 and however effective it may be in checking tramp-houses, it will 

 not touch the evils of overcrowded Irish lodging-houses. It makes 

 all houses, otherthan public-houses, liable to registry and inspection, 

 where persons are lodged for a single night or less than a week. 

 Unless some exception be made for Brighttm, Margate, Gravesend, 

 and other watering places, the inconvenience and annoyance will 

 be gi-eat ; as liouse-holders are glad to accommodate visitors who 

 run down by steamboat or rail on the Sunday, and return on the 

 Monday. 



The clause 54, giving control to the commissioners for regulat- 

 ing the levels and plans of new streets, is arbitrary in its inter- 

 ference « ith pri\ate propertj', while six weeks is very much too 

 long for any inquiry to be ma<ie by a local board or its officers. 



In the next clause, 30 feet is too wide for a mews ; 24 feet is 

 ample. 



The clause 58, for enaliling local boards to set up waterworks, 

 however necessary in itself, is likely to do evil by throwing impe- 

 diments in the way of private enterprise, for the existence of any 

 company to be set up is precarious and dependent on the local 

 board. 



After all that has been said about graveyards in towns, it is 

 a pity to see the countenance given to this abuse by clause G7, 

 which allows of graves being made with only thirty inches of soil 

 over the coffins, — a shameful and fearful nuisance. 



The clause 78 is inconsistent with the general tenour of the act, 

 for after making it compulsory on each house to ha\e the water 

 laid on, the measure of cutting it off for non-payment of rates, is 

 one not favourable to the public health. 



REVIC^VS. 



The Theory and Practice of Ship Building. By Tho.mas White, 

 jun. London : Johnstone, 1848. 8vo. pp. 101, with volume of 

 folio plates. 



The science of ship building appears to us one of those in which 

 the precise application of mathematics is not to be attempted; 

 but of which, nevertheless, the leading principles should be based 

 on the theoretical laws of mechanics. For ship building, ma- 

 thematical formul8e can do nothing — mathematical principles 

 everything. The former cannot take account of the thousand and 

 one practical requisites of a good ship — the latter leave sufficient 

 margin for the attainment of the needful qualifications; the 

 former impose laws which are not always just, and even where 

 they are just, are too minute and restrictive ; but the latter estab- 

 lish a more liberal and lenient code — one more easy to be obeyed 

 and more deserving of obedience. In choosing between a scien- 

 tific principle and an analytical formula, the ship builder chooses 

 between a friend and a master. 



There is, howe\er, a great difference between general principles 

 and vague principles. It is the latter which are now almost e,\- 

 clusively observed in the puldic dockyards. Grave official per- 

 sonages have a great horror of matters whch they themselves do 

 not understand, and consequently the range of their antipathies is 

 very comprehensive. It includes .science. It is no great scandal 

 to assert that in the government dockyards, the most profound 

 science is not so useful a personal commodity as kinship to one of 

 the Lords of the Admiralty. Let a man prove by rigorous scien- 

 tific demonstration, that some established rule of ship building 

 is essentially erroneous — and will he be rewarded for his pains .'' 

 Will he be thanked for making an advance in science? Will the 

 obligation under which he has laid society to liim, be discliarged ? 

 Quite the contrary. The chances are, that he will be frowned down 

 as a visionary, or rebuked for pretending to know more than his 

 betters. In the eyes of men in office, to be set right is to suffer 

 /ese-miijpsti'. 



There is one chance, however, tliat a scientific disco\ery may be 

 useful, if not to the discoverei', at least to the public ; — some one 

 who dines occasionally at the Admiralty, may think it worth while 

 to appro)iriate it. 



Our re.spect for government science, for the reseai-ches of royal 

 commissions, the mathematics of blue-books, and the investigations 

 of official inspectors, is extremely limited. In matters of experi- 

 mental philosophy, we should lay it down as a general rule, that 

 the persons least likely to find out the truth are — the " properly 

 constituted authorities." AVhat a satisfactory affair the Gauge 

 Conmiission turned out ! IIt)W well Sir M'illiam Symonds' ships 

 sail ! With what universal and unhesitating deference did tlie 

 railway engineers receive the reports of Sir Charles Pasley ! And 

 to go still further back, liow admirably the Irish Railway Com- 

 missioners executed their task ! of which the most favourable 

 thing that can be said is — that their report suited the character 

 of the country affected by it. The blunders of admeasurement in 

 the j)lans and sections v\ ere not iuuch more egregious than some 

 which have been detected by the Standing Orders committees : 

 and Mr. Barlow's investigations of the effect of gradients are not 

 very much worse than a mathematical student would write in his 

 first year. 



It seems to us quite clear, that for the future advancement of 

 the practical sciences we must trust entirely, or almost entirely, 

 to private efforts. At rare intervals, indeed, a commission will be 



