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Mr. W. PAICE proposed an embankment from Westminster Bridge to London Bridge, about 70 feet wide, with dock under roadway part of the distance. Raised roadway on wrought iron girders, from midway between Waterloo and Hungerford, terminating at Southwark. No railroad. The dock to be midway between Waterloo and Hungerford, terminating at Southwark, with 8 openings 40 feet wide.

Mr. J. F. SMITH (Belvedere) proposed a solid embankment from Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars; new road of 80 feet wide from Waterloo to Blackfriars, following the line of the northern embankment. Roadway 80 feet throughout, and quay of 30 feet wide outside the roadway. No railway or docks. The extent of encroachment on river, 100 feet at Westminster Bridge, 240 feet at Hungerford, and 14 arch of Waterloo Bridge. The estimated expense 227.8157., not including the filling in of wharves.

Mr. F. W. SHIELDS proposed an embankment from Vauxhall to Westminster Bridges, the portion next Vauxhall Bridge to midway between the Bridge and Lambeth Pier not being constructed at present. Takes off 50 feet from projecting wharf-line at Upper Fore Street, extends out 40 feet at Lambeth Pier, goes from thence straight to New Westminster Bridge abutment. No embankment from Westminster to Southwark, but a fixed river boundary corresponding with the abutments of the existing bridges and with the general line of wharf frontage. Roadway continuing and widening Vauxhall Row, at the east end of the London Gasworks, by removing the small buildings on the south side of Princes Street, and turning it on to the embankment below the Flour Mill, forming road 80 feet wide by river side, from thence to Westminster Bridge, removing that portion of Upper Fore Street that stands westward of Broad Street, and the portion of Lower Fore Street, between Broad Street and Lambeth Church, continuing the road in front of Stangate to Westminster Bridge, leaving a large portion of reclaimed ground between the road and the present wharves. No railway or docks. The extent of encroachment on river abutment of Vauxhall Bridge, 70 feet from the Bishop's Walk, abutment of Westminster Bridge, abutment of Hungerford Bridge, abutment of Waterloo Bridge, abutment of Blackfriars Bridge, and abutment of Southwark Bridge. The estimated expense 120,000l. for works of construction, not including compensation for property disturbed.

Mr. W. CARPMAEL proposed, 1, a solid embankment from Vauxhall Bridge to London Bridge on the lines suggested by Mr. Walker, but for the embankment to pass under the bridges in place of having accesses at the bridges as proposed by Mr. Walker, with travelling cranes over the roadway to water-side premises. 2. Plan for regulating existing wharves and river wall to one uniform line. Roadway 50 feet wide. No railway or dock. Extent of encroachment on river abutment of Vauxhall Bridge, abutment of Westminster Bridge, 1 arch of Waterloo Bride, 1 arch of Blackfriars Bridge, abutment of Southwark Bridge, and abutment of London Bridge.

Mr. J. CARTER proposed an embankment on both sides of the river, from Bishop's Walk to Westminster Bridge, thence 100 feet wide parallel with the river frontage, terminating at Deptford. Roadway upon arches from 50 feet upwards, a front wharf 30 feet wide, where no inlet exists, and a space for light and air 20 feet between existing buildings. Tramroad to all bridges; no dock. General encroachment of 100 feet on present line of river frontage. Estimated expense, 75,000l. per mile.

Mr. H. W. SICH proposed an embankment from Lambeth Church to Blackfriars Bridge, with roadway on suspension principle outside the embankment, and barge bed under roadway. From Westminster Bridge to Blackfriars Bridge, an extent of reclaimed land by embankment of 45 feet wide on the average for the use of wharfingers. Roadway 40 feet wide, raised on columns with large bed underneath it. No railway or dock. Extent of encroachment on river at Bishop's Walk 80 feet, Westminster Bridge 60 feet, Hungerford Bridge 130 feet, Waterloo Bridge 1 arch, and Blackfriars Bridge 1 arch. Estimated expense 400,000l.

Mr. J. GIBBS proposed an embankment from Battersea Bridge to below Southwark Bridge, cutting off the projecting point at Fore Street, Lambeth, but only recommends the present construction from Westminster to Battersea Bridge. Roadway on outer part of embankment as far as Westminster Bridge. No railway or docks. Extent of encroachment on river, 2 arches of Vauxhall Bridge, 150 feet at Westminster, 24 feet at Waterloo, an arch of Blackfriars Bridge, abutment of Southwark Bridge, and widening the river at certain parts of Lambeth.

Messrs. ALLEN proposed an embankment on both sides, making a channel of 700 feet wide and 6 feet depth at low-water. Space reclaimed available for building purposes. Roadway 75 feet wide on each embankment.

Mr. C. HENMAN proposed a solid embankment, the exception being shallow docks for timber floats only; the general level of the embankment and road to be 4 feet above Trinity high-water mark. Roadway, a high-level road for main through traffic 60 feet wide, connecting the Borough side of Lon on Bridge, Southwark, Blackfriars, Waterloo, and Westminster, at the level of these bridges. A low-level road 80 feet wide, in connection with the principal thoroughtares in the rear; and also in connection with warehouses to be built on line of frontage. A street tramway on the low-level road. Shallow docks for floats of timber under roadway of embankment in front of present timber yards only. Extent of encroachment on river to be furnished hereafter. Westminster half of first arch, Waterloo

2 arches, Blackfriars 2 arches, and Southwark 60 feet northward of south abutment. The estimated expense to compensate owners, form the embankment and upper roadway, and erect warehouses, shops, and houses according to design, 2,750,000l. The mode of defraying expenses was as follows:-Estimates that the rental to be derived, if my plan is carried out, will be 80,000l. per annum, and that the capital could be raised, and this great national improvement effected on the tontine principle, without any ultimate actual expense to the Government or metropolis; provided a minimum dividend of say 3 per cent. is guaranteed to the nominees of the shareholders for their lives. The tontine should be divided into 80 classes to suit all ages, and in 1001. shares, so that the surviving nominee in each class would obtain a property in perpetuity of 100l. to 1,000l. per annum, whilst every other nominee would obtain a gradually increasing annuity during his life, varying from the guaranteed minimum up to 500l. per annum. The same principle could also be applied to a similar construction on the north side of the Thames; and in that case the coal duties, intended to be appropriated to its construction, might form the guarantee fund, and relieve the Government from any responsibility.

ORDNANCE SURVEY.

Report of the Progress of the Ordnance Survey and Topographical Depôt to the 31st December, 1861.

A COMMITTEE of the House of Commons was appointed last session, of which Viscount Bury was chairmain,-" to inquire into the expediency of extending the Cadastral survey to those portions of the United Kingdom which have been surveyed upon the scale of one inch to the mile only." In their report the committee state that they have received much important information from the witnesses who have been examined, but that "having regard to the advanced period of the session, they have agreed to report the evidence taken up to the present time, and to recommend that the committee shall be re-appointed in the next session of Parliament." In consequence of the reduction in the amount of the grant for the survey for 1861-62 by the sum of 20,000l., 180 surveyors and draftsmen were obliged to be discharged, and of the remaining number (1,357), 340 have been constantly employed upon the surveys in the south of England and Wales, required for the execution of the works for the defence of our naval arsenals, and for the proposed central military depôt at Cannock Chase. The progress of the survey in Scotland and the north of England has, consequently, been comparatively slow, and only in proportion to the number of surveyors and draftsmen employed.

The surveys, however, which have been made round London, and in Hampshire, Kent, Surrey, and elsewhere, have all been made so as to form part of the national survey; and consequently, if the committee of the House of Commons should report in favour of the extension of the Cadastral survey over the whole of England and Wales, and Parliament should sanction it, the work now executed for military purposes will form an integral portion of the national survey, and the money now expended upon it will go to diminish the cost of the general survey, and we shall, in fact, have been only making progress in the south instead of in the north of England. The survey of the Isle of Wight has, in compliance with the recommendation contained in the report of the committee of the House of Commons, been finished. But in consequence of this division of our surveying force, the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland are not yet finished, and a great part of another year must elapse before they can be. In Scotland the survey of Forfarshire is finished, and that of Perth

shire and Buteshire will be completed next year. The triangulation of Kincardineshire and Argyllshire has been commenced preparatory to the detailed survey of these two counties.

The trigonometrical survey of the United Kingdom is now completed. The sum of 1,000l. was granted this year with a view to connect our triangulation with that of France and Belgium, as part of a great combined operation between the geometricians of England, France, Belgium, Prussia, and Russia, for forming a complete triangulation from the west of Ireland to the Oural Mountains, and obtaining the data for measuring an arc of parallel 75° in length along the parallel of 52°.

For carrying the triangulation across the Channel we used our stations at St. Peter's near Margate, Coldham near Folkestone, and Fairlight near Hastings, and connected these three stations with Gravelines, Mont Couple near Wissant, and Mont Lambert near Boulogne. From these three last stations we observed a station at Harlettes on the road between Boulogne and St. Omer, and from this were able to observe Cassel and Dunkirk, and from these the station at Mt. Kemmel in Belgium near Ypres. The triangle, Dunkirk, Cassel, and Mt. Kemmel, is common to the triangulations of France and Belgium; and we have now made this same triangle a portion of the extended triangulation of England. Thus we shall have the sides of this triangle determined independently from the bases measured in England, France, and Belgium; and as there will probably be some small difference in the length of the sides thus determined, I have proposed that a direct comparison of the standards of length used in the measurement of the bases should be made, and thus to remove one possible source of error; and as we have at Southampton a house built expressly for the purpose of making such comparisons, that the standards should be sent here to be compared.

The map of Ireland, on the scale of one inch to a mile, in outline, was completed during the past year.

At the request of the Government of South Australia, and with the sanction of her Majesty's Government, a 10-foot standard bar was made, and compared with the 10-foot standard bar of the Ordnance Survey. On this standard bar we have set off the length of the fathom, yard, foot, and half foot, and it will probably become the standard of length in that colony, as the lengths set off on it are derived by direct comparison from the standard yard of this country. It is greatly to be desired that each of our colonies should provide itself with a similar standard, so that all measures taken in them may be strictly comparable. In making the numerous comparisons necessary for the exact determination of the length of the ten feet on this standard, and the intermediate subdivisions, it was highly satisfactory to find that in consequence of the peculiar construction given to the bar-room in which the comparisons have been made, the alteration in the temperature throughout the twenty-four hours, and during great daily changes in the temperature of the external air, has scarcely been appreciable, whilst there is a steady retrograde or advance in the temperature due to the change of the season.

The publication by photo-zincography of the fac-simile of the ancient MS. which appeared in the Report for 1859, and of the detailed account of the process published in 1860 in a small pamphlet, with the notices which have appeared in the press, have spread throughout the world a knowledge of this art; and the publication last year of the fac-simile of

the part of Domesday Book relating to Cornwall has given rise to a very generally expressed desire on the part of the gentlemen of almost every county in England for her Majesty's Government to allow the whole of Domesday Book to be published, county by county, in the same manner that the part relating to Cornwall has been. A definite line of action was therefore submitted for the approval of the Lords of her Majesty's Treasury, to be followed with reference to the publication of this great national and inestimably valuable book, by which the public might be gratified, and at the same time her Majesty's Government not put to any expense thereby.

Domesday Book contains the great survey of England made by William the Conqueror, in which the name of the owner of every manor is given, with the quantity of land in each manor, and the quantity of meadow, pasture, wood, &c. in it, stated; and it is an interesting fact, and highly gratifying to me, to find that the art of photo-zincography, which we have discovered and applied for the purpose of making the detailed topographical plans of the kingdom, has led to my being able to produce at the same time the fac-simile of the most ancient survey and terrier of the kingdom, and which is such a document as no other country in the world

possesses.

The publication of the edition of Domesday Book in 1783, for which types had to be specially made, is said to have cost the Government 38,000l., and copies of it are so expensive and so rare, that few can either buy one or even refer to one, and the types were destroyed by a fire in 1808; but by adopting the arrangement of publishing the fac-simile of the work in parts, any one can purchase the part in which he is more particularly interested at a small cost, whilst the Government will not be put to any cost whatever.

The value of photo-zincography is also felt in every topographical establishment; and at the request of the Secretary of State for India in Council, we have recently instructed one non-commissioned officer and one sapper of her Majesty's Indian Engineers in this art, to qualify them to practise it in the office of the Surveyor-General of India.

But we have recently discovered a method of producing a negative impression on paper, from which a single copy of a deed or other document can be printed on parchment in permanent ink, and thus we can avoid the necessity of transferring the negative copies to zinc or stone before printing. This art has been called photo-papyrography. The survey in England and Scotland has been extended, and that of Ireland has been completed.

CHARITABLE FUNDS.

Returns made by the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds on the 1st day of February, 1862, in pursuance of the Statutes 23 & 24 Vic., c. 136, s. 18. (Feb. 10, 1862.) (18.)

THE total amount of the capital, stock, shares, and securities, transferred to the official trustees of charitable funds, in the year ending the 31st day of December, 1861, was, Consolidated 3 per cent. Annuities, 233,260. 178. 10d.; Reduced 3 per cent., 14,154l. 8s. 3d.; New,

44,0611. 7s. 5d.; New 2, 9781. 10s. 7d.; India 5 per cent. Stock, 1,000l.; Bank Stock, 311. 12s. 11d.; 5 per cent. perpetual preference shares stock on the Great Northern Railway Company, 300l. The aggregate amount of such securities held was, Consolidated 3 per cent. Annuities, 815,754l.; Reduced, 89,151.; New, 143,4571.; New 2, 21,405l.; New 3, 1654; India 5 per cent. Stock, 2,369l. 48. 7d.; Bank Stock, 5,420l. Debentures: London and North-Western Railway Company, 3,000l.; Preference Stock, Great Northern Railway, 3007.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT.

Fourth Report on the Execution of the Local Government Act, 1858. THE Local Government Act, 1858, has been adopted in twenty-seven places, principally in Yorkshire, and partially adopted to complete local Acts and to meet local requirements in ten places. Sanctions were given under the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1858, for the mortgage of rates in many cases for such purposes as drainage, water-supply, street improvement, sewerage works, deodorizing works, kerbing, and paving footways, &c.

CHARITABLE DONATIONS AND BEQUESTS.

Seventeenth Annual Report of the Commissioners of Charitable Donations and Bequests for Ireland.

ON the 31st December, 1861, the amount to the credit of the Commissioners in the Bank of Ireland was 216,794l. 5s. 7d., viz., Government Stock, 216,4177. 78. 1d.; in debentures and mortgage, 3767. 18s. 6d. The cash account showed a balance due to charities of 1,405l. 7s. 5d. On the 31st December, 1860, a great variety of trusts were placed under the guardianship of the Commissioners, among which were the following:For the purchase of spinning wheels, marriage portions, poor widows, purchase of provisions on Christmas Eve, the ministers of Holy Cross, six poor people, dinner on Christmas Day to inmates of Wicklow gaol, after death of schoolmaster and wife to the poor of Loughgall, Ulster deaf and dumb institution, pious charitable uses as the Bishop of Limerick may direct, poor Protestants, bread for Wexford poor, old man's asylum, coals for poor people of Waterford, bread and mutton on Christmas Eve to poor roomkeepers in Downpatrick, reception for servants, poor tradesmen, bread for poor, old ladies asylum, the poor, sick and indigent of different places, Roman Catholic and Protestant asylums, dispensaries, hospitals, orphan schools, charitable societies, debtors in Marshalsea, Dublin; church missionary society, Bible society, mendicity association, &c.

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