382 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[November, 



committed, ami to order that any such person so committed sliall be impri- 

 soned and detained in any of her Majesty's gaols or houses of correction in 

 the said county or place in the mean time, or to take hail for his appearance, 

 with or without sureties, in his discretion ; and every such person so otTend- 

 ing, anil convicted hcfore such court of quarter sessions as aforesaid (which 

 saiil court is herehy required to take cognizance of and hear and determine 

 such complaint), shall be liulile, in tlic discretion of such court, to be impri- 

 soned, with or without hard lal)our, for any term not exceeding two years. 



Punishnent of persons ofjsfriict'mg raitwoy. — And be it enacted, that from 

 and after the ])assing of this Act every person who shall wilfully do or cause 

 to be done any thing in such manner as to obstruct any engine or carriage 

 using any railway, or to endanger the safety of persons conveyed in or njion 

 the same, or shall aid or assist therein, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 teing convicted tliereof shall he liable, at the discretion of the court before 

 which he shall have been convicted, to be imprisoned, with or without hard 

 labour, for any term not exceeding two years. 



For punis/imetit of persons ohstrucling the officers of railwnij company, or 

 tresjiassing upon any railvay. — And be it enacted, that if any person shall 

 wilfully obstruct or impede any officer or agent of any railway company in 

 the execution of his duty upon any railway, or upon or in any of the stations 

 or other works or premises connected therewith, or if any person shall wilfully 

 trespass upon any railway, or any of the stations or other works or premises 

 connected therewith, and shall refuse to quit the same upon request to him 

 made by any officer or agent of the said company, every such person so 

 offending, and all others aiding or assisting therein, shall and may be seized 

 and detained by any such officer or agent, or any person whom he may call 

 to his assistance, until such offender or offenders can be conveniently taken 

 before some justice of the peace for the county or place wherein such offence 

 shall be committed, and when convicted before such justice as aforesaid (who 

 is hereby authorized and required, njion complaint to him upon oath, to take 

 cognizance, thereof, and to act summarily in the premises,) shall, in the dis- 

 cretion of such justice, forfeit to her Majesty any sum not exceeding 5/ , and 

 in defaidt of payment thereof shall or may be imprisoned for any term not 

 exceeding two calendar months, such imprisonment to be determined on pay- 

 ment of the amount of the penalty. 



Proceedings not to be quashed for want of form, or removed into the supe- 

 rior covr/s. — And be it enacted, that no proceedings to be had and taken in 

 pursuance of this Act shall be quashed or vacated for want of form, or be re- 

 moved by certiorari, or by any other writ or process whatsoever, into any of 

 her Majesty's courts of record at Westminster or elsewhere, any law or statute 

 to the contrary notwithstanding. 



Jiepefft of atl provisions in railway Acts that empmrer two justices to decide 

 disputes respecting the proper places for openings in tlie ledges orjtanclies of 

 railways. — .\nd whereas many railway companies are bound, by the provisions 

 of the Acts of Parliament by which they are incorporated or regulated, to 

 make, at the expence of the owner or occu])ier of lands adjoining the railway, 

 openings in the ledges or flanches thereof (except at certain places on such 

 railway in the said Acts specified), for effecting communications between such 

 railway and any collateral or branch railway to be laid down over such lands, 

 and any disagreement or difference which shall arise as to the proper places 

 for making any such openings in the ledges or flanches is by such Acts 

 directed to be referred to the decision of any two justices of the peace within 

 their respective jurisdictions : and whereas it is expedient that so much of 

 every clause, provision, and enactment in any Act of Parliament heretofore 

 passed, as gives to any justice or justices Ihe power of hearing or deciding 

 upon any such disagreement or difference as to the proper places for any such 

 openings in the ledges or flanches of any railway, should be repealed ; be it 

 therefore enacted, that so much of every such clause, provision, and enact- 

 ment as aforesaid shall be repealed. 



Board of Trade to determine such disputes in future. — And be it enacted, 

 that in case any disagreement or difference shall arise between any such owner 

 or occu])ier, or other persons, and any railway company, as to the proper 

 places for any such openings in the ledges or flanches of any railway (except 

 at such i)laces as aforesaid), for the purpose of such communication, then the 

 same shall be left to the decision of the lords of the said committee, who are 

 hereby enjpowered to hear and determine the same iu such way as they shall 

 think fit, and their determination shall be binding on all parties. 



Communications to the l/oard to be left at their office. — Comuninications 

 by the board how to be authenticated. What shall be deemed good service 

 on milway company. — And be it enacted, that all notices, returns, and other 

 documents required by this Act to be given to or laid before the lords of the 

 said committee shall be delivered to or sent by the post to the office of the 

 lords of the said committee ; and all notices, appointments, requisitions, cer- 

 tificates, or other documents in writing, signed by one of the secretaries of 

 tlie said connnittee, or by some officer appointed for that purpose by the lords 

 of the said committee, and purporting to be made by the lords of the said 

 oommiltee, shall, for the i)urposcs of this Act, be deemed to have been made 

 ))y tlie lords of the said committee ; and service of the same upon any one or 

 more of the directors of any railway company, or on the secretary or clerk of 

 the said company, or by leaving the same with the clerk or officer at one of 

 the stations belonging to the said company, shall be deemed good service 

 upon the said company. 



Meaning of the u'ords "railway" and "company." — And he it enacted, 

 that wherever the word " railway" is used in this Act it shall be construed 

 to extend to all railv\ays constructed under the powers of any Act of Parlia- 



ment, and intended for the conveyance of passengers in or upon carriages 

 drawn or impelled by the power of steam or by any other mechanical power ; 

 and wherever the word " company" is used in this Act it shall be construed 

 to extend to and include the proprietors for the time being of any such rail- 

 way, whether a body coqiorate or iiuliWduals, and their lessees, executors, 

 administrators, and assigns, unless the subject or context be repugnant to 

 such consfniction. 



Jet may be repealed this session. — And be it enacted, that this Act may 

 be amended or repealed by any Act to be passed in the present Session of 

 Parliament. 



THK THAMES EMBANKMENT. 



Abridgement of the Evidence. 



(Concluded from p. 360.J 



Mr. Stephen Leach stated, that he is clerk of the works on the river Thames, 

 from .Staines to Yautlet Creek; 39 years in all he has been in the service 

 of the corporation : nine years assistant to his predecessor, and 30 years 

 since. Very considerable improvements have taken place under his direction 

 in the navigation of the Thames between Putney and Staines ; when he came 

 into the oflice, the navigation there was in a very bad state ; it was no un- 

 usual thing for 50 or 60 barges to be aground in one place, and some of them 

 he has knimn to be a fortnight working through the city jurisdiction. At 

 present they get up with tolerable certainty, from the Pool to Staines, in 16 

 or 18 hours, and dowai from that place in less time ; those improvements have 

 been made under his direction. "The improvements consist of the building of 

 six pound-locks and five veirs, in ditierent places, wliere the impediments 

 were the greatest ; the removal of a number of shoals, and the raising of 

 towing-paths with the ballast so removed. He has considered the plan now 

 before the Committee for embanking the river Thames from Vaushall Bridge 

 to London Bridge, on the north side ; he considers it certainly as calculated 

 to effect an indispensable improvement, by a very obvious and usual mode of 

 improving river navigation, namely, by contraction; it is much too wide in 

 several places to preserve a uniform depth, and a convenient one for naviga- 

 tion. The object of this embankment would be to equaUze the section of the 

 river, to regulate the velocity, and thereby to displace and enclose the large 

 quantities of mud which are at present on the shores, and which receive the 

 noxious contents of the sewers. The embankment bef; ins at Vauxhall Bridge, 

 where there is a short length, not very important. With regard to the na- 

 vigation that joins from Vauxhall Bridge to Millbank, opposite the Peniten- 

 tiary, there the embankment is complete, which is carried out to the full 

 extent ; there is no intention in that part of carrying it further out ; he con- 

 siders it as a specimen of what the embankment would be if it were continued 

 in a similar way. The line is taken to the Horseferry-road, Horseferry-stairs, 

 in front of the Marquess of Westminster's property ; that vsould be a very 

 Ijeneficial improvement in his opinion. No part of that is embanked at pre- 

 sent ; the proposition is, to come flush with a very old wharf, w hich has been 

 there for many years, now in the possession of Mr. Johnson, a stone wharf, 

 in a line with Ihe embankment at the Parliament Houses, which completes it 

 to Westminster Bridge; below Westminster Bridge the embankment is pro- 

 posed to be continued to Scotland-yard ; and there, on account of the parti- 

 cular nature of the business, and the number of coal barges, it is proposed to 

 discontinue the embankment, and adopt a low embankment of some two or 

 three feet above low water, so as to form a dock for the more convenient 

 carrying and entering those barges ; that is Mr. Walker's plan, and it is one 

 in wliich he (Mr. Leach) quite concurs, according to the present occupation. 

 From Scotland-yard, in front of the llunperford Market estate, the York- 

 buildings' estate, the Savoy, and so on, he thinks there is a length of about 

 1,400 feet, and an average width of about 300 feet ; the mud on part of this 

 ground is alreadv so grown up as to have a pretty large vegetation upon it 

 in front of York-Tiuildings, already embanked with an accumulation of mud. 

 From Waterloo Bridge the embankment is proposed to be continued in front 

 of Somerset House and King's College, auout 600 feet in length, and all 

 average width of 130 feet ; and at no place, in his opinion, is an embankment 

 so much needed as in front of Somerset House, where there is a very lofty 

 heavy pile of building imniedialely on Ihe brink of the river, and he thinks 

 it wants sumething to defend it in tront of it, which woukl be a protection to 

 the building; there is a depth of water in frunt of it, at Ihe upper end of it 

 particularly; the set of the current is immediately in that direction : that 

 violent current has so deepened the water at Waterloo Bridge, that the late 

 Sir Edw ard Banks recommended a deposit of about 3.000 tons of stone to pro- 

 tect the Bridge. l'"rom King's Cullege the embankment proceeds about 460 

 feet in length, with an average wiilfh of about 190 feet to Water-street, from 

 whence, the occupation ot the wharfs being principally by coal merchants, 

 the open-dock system of low wharfing is proposed ; there must be an open 

 dock there to accommodate the coal trade; then the embankment »ould be 

 continued to the end of Temple Gardens ; it is tlieu intended to adopt the 

 open-dock system and the low wharfing below the Temple, from Whitefriars- 

 dock to Ulackfriars Bridge. There is nothing particular between Blackfriars 

 and Soulhwark Bridges, only to correct the present irregularities, and make 

 a fair and straight line. It goes on to London Bridge ; at the bridge it wants 

 no contraction whatever, it is already (piile small enough. 



Mr. James H'hile Higgins was examineil ; he is a surveyor of long standing ; 

 has been engaged both in the service of the Commissioners of Woods and 

 Forests, and of the City of London, on very many occasions. The quantity 

 of land to be embanked is,'J!)5,400feet, that is, reclaimed by suld embankment ; 

 that 1 have from Mr. Walker's estimate, and that is independentof theCrown 

 property. The amount of Crown property is 430,1,'50 feet. With reference to 

 value, it is an exceedingly difficult question to deal with, and one that_does 



