OUR LONDON LETTER. (From OUR Correspondent.) London, August 11.

The visit of the French Squadron, in 1844 —then the first since 1815—was, it is interesting to recall, also a "burying of the hatchet." It followed, in fact, immediately upon the adjustment of the Tahiti difficulty, in which Mr Pritchard, a missionary, who was British Consul besides, had played a prominent part Somewhat in advance of public opinion at home, Louis Philippe and Guizot desired to prove the sincerity of their good feeling towards us by their presence in this country. The feeling was quite reciprocated. Prince Albert and ibe Duke of Wellington met the visitors at Southampton, and took them to Windsor. "At two o'clock," says Lady Lyttel ton, They arrived, this curious King, worth seeing, if ever anybody was. Down flew the Queen, and we after her, just in time to see the escort clattering up, and the carriage close behind." His Majesty, she thought, was much moved : "His hand shook ; his hat was quite off, and his grey hair seen. His embrace of the Queen was very paternal and nice," though he, probably, did not say : "Combien de plaiser j'ai de vous embraseer!"

That was on October 8. On the 9th the visitor was made K.G. "Albert placed the Garter round the King's leg, and I pulled it through." Then, he said, "Je voudrais embrasser cette main," which he did. The visit lasted a week, and the French ships had a very pleasant time. A gale of wind sent the King home the short way, by Dover and Calais, but the Queen went specially to Portsmouth, and honored Admiral de la Sasse with her pre sence at luncheon aboard the Gomer.

The entry of a French fleet into the inner harbour at Portsmouth has had no parallel. A small American squadrou, it is recorded, was once accorded the same hospitality ; but that hospitality has been extended to the warships of no other nation until now. Never till Wednesday last was the tricolor hoisted on the Victory to salute the passing alongside of a French Admiral and an Escadre du Nord.

London in August is nominally empty. The hollowness of the formal phrase Was never more amply demonstrated than on Thursday, with its enthusiastic crowds filling the great thoroughfares to watch the passage of our visitors from France But, even had the ad jective been more nearly literal, we believe that the muster of spectators would still have been a remarkable ode. For they were there not only to watch but to welcome. This visit from our now allies has taken hold of the public mind, and London, which with some reason claims to lead public opinion, means to show in no uncertain manner how the heart of England feels towards the naval representative of France. London has had an opportunity and at the end of the week, there is but one verdict—that she has used it in a manner not unworthy of a novel and exceptional occasion.

Another outstanding difficulty between England and France will vanish, we may hope as the result of the award of the Tribunal of the Hague in the matter of Muscat. The French have insisted upon giving the protection of their flag to a number of native dhows engaged in trade, which are strongly suspected either of slavery, or of the

of the smuggling of arms along the coast, for the ben-fit of the

inland tribee in chronic revolt against the

Sultan, and of the outlaws of all sorts on both sides of the Persian Gulf. Is is now decided that natives may not fly the French flag unless they were under French protection before 1863 and such protection is not trans-

ferable to other natives or vessels, or even to vessels belonging to the same proprietor. With these restrictions, however, native craft under French protection shall have the right of inviolability within the territorial waters of Muscat.

This decision would seem to reduce

the opportunities for the abuse of French protection by slave-traders and gun-runners to a minimum; and, now that the policy of pin-pricks has been definitely put an end to be-

tween France and England, we may, reasonably expect to hear no more of this trouble some matter.

Sir James Kitson's Committee have reported

the great Electric Power Bill to the House of Commons, but they are just about one day too late to get it passed this Session. This will bo another grievance for the House of Lords, which had carefully examined and approved the provisions of the bill long before it reached the House of Commons. The real opposition to it comes from the two or three Liberal organs that have made of municipalism a fetish. But the height of their foolish resistance is reached today by the "Daily News." which put Sir James Kitson in the pillory because he ex-pressed in a letter, written long before he joined the Select Committee on the bill, an opinion "strongly in its favor before hearing the evidence for or against" An examination of the letter will show that all Sir James said was: "The bill has had very careful consideration from a Committee of the Lords. I think it only right to give the opportunity for the same consideration to be given in Committee of the Commons." Which is what any

who understand Parliamentary procedure would say. But the "Daily News" is not in these days endowed with either wisdom or knowledge.

The House of Commons showed a becoming restraint in discussing the partition of Bengal, and the agitation which it has brought about the ears of the Indian Government. It received an excellent lead in this respect from Sir M. Bhownagree, who observed, with some force that the policy was to be judged on its administrative merits, rather than on the excitement which it had evoked in Bengal. That excitement has all the marks of a straw fire. "Local patriotism" is easy to inflame for a fleeting moment, even by the most trivial interference with ancient boundaries, and Gov-

ernments in England as well as in India have

frequently to override the shallow sentiment

of the hour.

The ruling fact is that Bengal has grown too unwieldy to administer on the

existing bases, and the presumption is that the

Indian Government has adopted the best form of change.

In the next Session of Parliament a great

scheme for ensuring the purity of the water

supplied from the river Lee will be submitted for legislative approval. This, fi carried, will, with the work about to be undertaken during next winter, involve a capital expenditure of a million sterling. During the past half-century a number of schemes have been brought forward with the object of ensuring the purity of the

Lee water above the intakes, the Lee Water Company having in 1852 proposed to remove the intake further up the river, and to dispose of the purified sewage of Hertford which finds collected, and stored in the reservoirs of the East London district. By several Acts of Parliament, the latest of which was that creating the Water Board that body is now charged with the responsibility for treating the sewage of Hertford, which pays the Board £700 a year for the work, and receives £600 a year-from the Board under the Lea Conservancy Act for abstracting the water of the river. The result is that the town pays the Board £100 a year, while the Board itself is obliged to spend £1,400 a year in the treatment of the sewage. To ensure the parity of the river the Board pays the Lea Conservancy £2,C00 a year, bat efforts (in this direction have led to little result owing to the reluctance of the magistrates to punish the offending parties. Matters have now come to a head. The local authorities, governing some 46,000 people, declare that they will not spend any more money in purifying the effluents from their sewage farms, as such expenditure is beyond their means, and would be unnecessary if the waters of the Lea were not taken for drinking purposes.

The Water Board propose to collect the sewage from 31 towns and villages, and after purification to pour the efflaent into the river below a new intake, which they propose to construct some nine miles up the river, carrying the water in a new aqueduct to the old aqueduct and so on to the reservoirs at Tottenham. The new intake, which would take the form of a reservoir, will cost £290,0 and the nine mile aqueduct £383,000. The sewage collection scheme is expected to cost £'95,000, the new main drains accounting for £125,000. The Works and Stores Committee of the Board have been instructed to negotiat with the authorities with a view to their acceptance of the scheme, and the amount which they are prepared to contribute towards the cost. It was at first proposed that the Board should pay the whole of the cost of the great sewers, but the Board were averse to doing this, although at present it pays the whole of the cost of disposing of the drainage of Hertford. With the new proposals adopted, a controversy of half a century would be ended, and the Board in possession of a more adequate supply of water for London. The consumption of water in the London water area is enormous, and it is growing at a rate which makes new sources of supply imperative. The following official figures of the growth of this daily consumption at varions periods are interest-

ing : —

Gallons.

Lord Balfonr of Burleigh's Commission 207,000,000

Lord Llandaff's Commission. 221,000,000

Present Day 240,000,000

Estimate for 1931 400,000,000

Since the first commission sat the population has increased from 5,360,000 to 6,730,000, but it appears that during the past twelve years Londoners have become more economical in their ideas, and now use 3 1/2 gallons per head per day instead of 38. This little economy saves the Board no less than 26,920,000 gallons per day, which, putting the usual price of 9d. per 1,000 gallons upon it, is equivalent to a very large money saving.

By this now scheme the Board hope to be able to arrest and purify the flood water, as it is now doing at Staines and Tottenham. At present on a dry day the Board is unable to take its statutory quantity from the Lea, its stagnant condition after abstraction being a source of great danger. It has been found that filtered sewage is finding its way into the river,

even when there is no direct outflow from the farm to the river, but more dangerous of all is the effluent from the Government powder factory at Waltham. This the Board feel must at once be stopped.

The authorities on the banks of the Thames do not, however, approve the proposal for the ratepayers paying for sewage purification of towns and villages far away from London. Some 117 authorities, representing 527 towns and villages on the Thames and its tributaries, have been compelled by the Thames Conservancy to spend £2,000,000 in stopping all sewage inflow to the Thames, and it is argued that all that is wanted is the same firmness in the case of the Lea Conservancy.

Lord Welby is among the leaders of those who would compel the authorities at their own expense to cease polluting the river. The question now remaining for settlement is : What action will the Local Government Board take ?

The Court of Appeal had recently to give an opinion on the question whether a well-conducted boxing contest, similar in all respect tq a prize-ring battle with fight gloves, may be properly called "a high-class exhibition of physical culture." The plaintiff had hired for this latter purpose the Atherseum Hall— not the Athenmam in Pail Mall, but the Athenaeum Hall in Camden-road—and the proprietors of the hall had stopped his entertainment ; whereupon he had sued in vain for damages before Mr. Jastice Darling and a common jury. He was not content ; he seems to have thought his boxing "high class." Well, everybody knows that 4 oz. gloves are a fraud. As Lord Justice Romer said, they punish as much as the naked fist ; some people say more. The Lords Justices had no hesitation in dismissing the action, on the ground that the plaintiff had violated his contract. A good deal has been done by the National, Sporting Club and other people—not without. misadventures—to confer respectability upon that form of "the noble art" which cultivates the knock-out blow ; but it is not generally understood to come within the category of high-class physical culture. Their Lordships of Appeal may have had in memory the fact that, in connection with the Coronation festiv-

ities, the King himself had to veto a boxing entertainment at the Albert Hall.

The Bow-Street case against two Italians, Antonalli and Barbieri, who are charged with

inciting to assassination in their own country by publishing a journal here, cannot be discussed while sub judice. But, without re-ference to what is alleged against these aliens, satisfaction may be expressed at the proof, afforded by this prosecution, that England is.

not so alien herself to the comity of nations as to harbour all and sundry malcontents of other

lands without policing them. Laxity in time

past has allowed it to be supposed abroad too easily that the vermin of civilization may nest,

engender, and hatch in England comfortably. We cannot, of course, take sides in foreign domestic politics - except as we are for all lengths of constitutional liberty the world over. But with respect to a brood of men who are

everywhere the common enemies of order and public safety, we have been compelled to attempt a distinction; and, as London teem, with refugees of that sort, it is just as well

they should learn that they are not entirely free to abuse a free country. The Bow-street prosecution may or may not establish a case in point. It serves, however, to advertise the existence of a law which, however its application may call for discriminate and even jealous care, meets the emergency of an Anarchist propaganda.

The match at Bramall-lane, Sheffield, between

Lancashire and Yorkshire, which ended in a win for the latter by 44 runs, was one of the most extraordinary games on record, fortunes varied throughout, first one side and then the other appearing likely to win. Lancashire failed at the crisis of the game, however, and York-shire once more demonstrated their ability to play an uphill game Yet, when all is said, there can be no question that Lancashire lost through the falling-off in the quality of their bowling. This falling off has been in evidence since the end of May, and constitutes the great difference between the Lancashire eleven of 1904 and the Lancashire eleven of 1905. An appeal to figure, show, that Brearley is at present the most dependable bowler. Hallows, Cuttell. and Sharp have all failed to maintain their form of 1904. At the start of the season, up, say to the end of May, this, falling off was not at all decided. Since then, however, not one of the three has done anything with the ball, which serves to show not only why Lancashire lost a game which they appeared to have won on Tuesday forenoon, but also accounts for their lack of success all through the season compared with 1904.

The success of the Yorkshire team over their old opponent, has left the competition for county championship honors in a most in-teresting state. Too often the latter part of the reason has been spoiled by one county gaining each a big advantage over its opponents that the result has been almost a foregone conclu cion two months before the end. Had York shire suffered defeat yesterday instead of gaining . brilliant victory, Lancashire would have been looked upon as the champions of the 1905 season. But instead, the competition is as open now, at least so far as Yorkshire and Lancashire are concerned, as it was, two months ago. Lancastrian, may be excused for sorrowing the defeat of their champions, but the result of that one game has undoubt-edly added largely to the interest taken in the competition. Lancashire are, of course. still at the head of affairs, but very little separates them from their rivals.

Once more Mr. Bargeu, of Yorkshire, has tried to swim across the Channel, and once more he has failed. But though beaten so far he is the reverse of disgraced. It was less than a fornight ago that he made hie last attempt. Undaunted, he tries again, and gets to within four mile, of France before he has to acknowledge defeat. The prospect of Captain Webb's achievement being equalled looks as far away as ever. But by all means let attempts continue to be made upon his record. We are not all of the same mind with those who decry these long swims as profitless and foolish. Swimming is one of the finest exercises, as well as one of the most useful accomplishments there is. And the incentive of a definite goal server to stimulate not only to the highest efforts but to a care-fulness of living which is beneficial rather than the reverse to those who continue so pluckily to strain after its attainment.

Catherine Alsopp, a Sheffield charwoman has hanged herself by a piece of clothes-line on a nail in her bedroom, and has left, in ten lines of verse upon a piece of sugar paper, her calm farewell to a world too arduous. It is a document not to be read with vulgar amusement. She was tired enough to die, and that is more tired than any of us wish to be —

Her last words on earth were: "Dear friends, I am going where washing ain't done, nor sweeping, nor sewing. But everything there is exact to my wishes. For where they don't eat there's no washing of dishes, I'll be where loud anthems will always be ringing. But, having no voice, I'll be clear of the singing. Don't mourn for me now, don't mourn for me never. I'm going to do nothing for ever and ever!"

.

The jury mocked her yesterday with the customary verdict of "Suicide during temporary insanity," Her rapture seems most reasonably prophetic. May the earth lie lightly on her.