Mr. Rennie stated, that the expense of each coffre dam would be about 18,000l. or 20,000l., which is not included in the before-mentioned estimate. "An excavation has recently been made, by the direction of the corporation of London, into one of the piers, for the purpose of examining its stability, which your Committee have inspected; Mr. Chapman, Messrs. Ralph and James Walker, and several masons, have expressed themselves satisfied with the examination they have thereby been enabled to make, and they are of opinion that a similar examination of the other piers would be sufficient to enable them to form a decided opinion as to the practicability of effecting the proposed alteration; whereas in the opinion of Mr. Rennie, such examination has rather tended to decrease his confidence in the strength of the piers; and your Committee are of opinion that the reasons he assigns fully justify this conclusion. "Your Committee are further of opinion, that a work of such public importance should not be undertaken without the greatest and most unequivocal certainty of ultimate success, and even if such success could be secured, without adopting the expensive mode of examination beforementioned, the comparative advantages which a new bridge would possess over the old one, - which must under any circumstances be supported by starlings, are so great as to warrant your Committee in discountenancing the proposed alteration; and it should be observed that the professional men who proposed the plan of alteration did not them selves recommend its adoption; but distinctly state, that in every respect, except with a view to economy, a new bridge would be preferable to any alteration of the old. Your Committee, from the evidence adduced, think it extremely doubtful whether a new bridge will not ultimately be found less expensive than the proposed alteration. "Although your Committee cannot therefore recommend the adoption of the plan suggested in the before-mentioned report of Messrs. Dance and others; yet as it contains much valuable general information upon subject under consideration, they have thought proper to annex it to their report. the "Your Committee have not been unmindful of the effect which will be produced upon the navigation of the river by the removal of the dam which the present bridge occasions; upon which subject they refer to the testimony of several of the witnesses examined before them, and particularly to the opinion of Dr. Hutton; the harbour-masters of the port of London; the report of Messrs. William Mountague, Rennie, Chapman, and James Mountague; the report of Mr. James Walker and Mr. Leach; and the evidence given by Mr. Rennie, Mr.Chapman, and Captain Ludlam, before a committee of the Corporation of London; by which it will be seen, that scarcely any difference of opinion exists as to the decided advantages which will be derived by a free current of water through the bridge. It is evident, that such free current will destroy the motive power of the London Bridge water-works. Your Committee have been furnished with the particulars of a negotiation which has taken place between a committee of the Corporation of London and the proprietors of those works, which not having met with a successful termination, and not being within the reference made to your Committee, it is unnecessary to detail. Your Committee, however, think it proper to remark, that in the event either of altering or rebuilding the bridge, the obstruction caused by the water-works, which are evidently a public nuisance, must be removed. "If the supply of Thames water be necessary to the public, your Committee conceive that other means, of a more certain, and, in all probability, of a less expensive nature than those now adopted, may be resorted to, for affording such supply. "Your Committee have made inquiry into the state of the finances applicable to the support of the bridge, the particulars of which will be found in the evidence annexed to this report. "After attentively considering all the evidence, your Committee are decidedly of opinion, that the present construction of Londonbridge, causes great impediment to the navigation of the river Thames, and is very injurious to the interests of the owners of the vessels which navigate the river, by occasioning frequent damage to the craft, and the loss of many lives. "That it appears to your Committee, that the only effectual remedy which can be applied to remove all the inconveniences and obstructions now existing, is by the entire removal of the present bridge with the starlings and water-works, and the erecting a new bridge with not more than five arches. "That it appears to your Committee, that considering the local interests connected with the approaches to the present bridge, a new bridge should be erected on the present site, or as near as possible to the same. "That it appears to your Committee, that the city of London hold in trust certain large estates, which were left to, and have otherwise become vested in them, for the purpose of sustaining London-bridge; that the yearly rental of such estates, subject to certain charges made thereon by acts of parliament and otherwise, and to expenses of management, the particulars of which will appear in the evidence of Mr. Robert Finch Newman, the Bridge-house comptroller, now amount to upwards of 25,800, and which, upon falling in ofleases, will be gradually increased; that the trustees also possess stock and cash, of the present value of 112,000l. and which sum is ap. plicable to the same purpose. "Your Committee further state, that in the event of the funds applicable to the proposed works proving insufficient, which they have no reason to believe will be the case, they are of opinion, that adequate means of raising the money may be found without imposing a toll on passengers passing over the bridge. "That your Committee recommend that a bill be brought into parliament early in the next ses sion for carrying into effect their report; and they also further recommend, that the notices required by the standing orders of the house, preparatory to the execution of such a plan as may finally be approved of, ought to be given by the city Remembrancer, previous to the next sessions of parliament, in order that the work, if sanctioned by parliament, may proceed without delay. "25th May, 1821." Copy of the REPORT to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, from the NATIONAL VACCINE ESTABLISHMENT, dated 12th April, 1821. To the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Sidmouth, Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, &c. &c. the Royal College of Surgeons who have bound themselves individually to each other, by a solemn engagement, not to yield to any solicitations to inoculate for the small-pox. This good example has been followed by most of the respectable practitioners in the country; though some of them, we are sorry to say,have lent themselves improvidently to this injuri ous practice. And we find that the multitude in many places have been so infatuated as to accept the proffered services even of itinerant inoculators, in spite of their gross ignorance of all disease, and of the rudeness and inaptitude of the instruments which they employ to insert the poison. Hence a perpetual source of con National Vaccine Establishment, Percy-street, April 12, 1821. MY LORD; It is with great regret we announce to your lordship that the small-pox has occasioned the loss of many lives in various parts of the United Kingdom since our last report; and that not less than 792 persons have died of that distemper, within the bills of mortality, in the course of the last year. This is about one third of the average number of those who perished annually in the metropolis before the introduction of vaccinnation; but so many deaths afford a strong presumptive proof that great pre-tagion is supplied and kept up, judices still prevail against vaccination, and that the benevolent designs of the government are still far from being accomplished. This board has laboured in cessantly to set forth the comparative ease and safety of the indisposition of vaccination, and the difficulty and danger of the small pox, whether occurring naturally or occasioned by inoculation; and it has been assisted most importantly, and in the true spirit of disinterested benevolence, by the master, governors, and members of the court of assistants of to the constant danger of all such as have not yet been vaccinated, or who may have undergone an imperfect process, or whose peculiarity of constitution makes them still susceptible of the variolous disease-a peculiarity similar to that which renders some persons capable of taking the small-pox twice; of which, within the period of three years only, we have received evidence of not less than 52 instances. It is true, indeed, my lord, that we have received accounts from different parts of the coun try, of numerous cases of smallpox having occurred after vaccination: and we cannot doubt that the prejudices of the people against this preventive expedient are assignable (and not altogether unreasonably perhaps) to this cause. These cases the board has been industriously employed in investigating; and though it appears that many of them rest only on hearsay evidence, and that others seem to have undergone the vaccine process imperfectly, some years since, when it was less well understood, and practised less skilfully than it ought to be; yet, after every reasonable deduction, we are compelled to allow that too many still remain on undeniable proof, to leave any doubt that the pretensions of vaccination, to the merit of a perfect and exclusive security in all cases against small-pox, were admitted at first rather too unreservedly. Yet the value of this important resource is not disparaged in our judgment; for, after all, these cases bear a very small proportion to the number of those who are effectually protected by it. The reports of the vaccinators at the, several stations in the metropolis give only 8 cases of small-pox out of nearly 67,000 vaccinated by them, since the first establishment of this board; and as the small-pox has prevailed extensively in London, these persons so vaccinated must have been frequently exposed to contagion, and consequently the protecting effect of vaccination must have been submitted to as severe a test as can well be imagined. Moreover, we have the most undoubted proofs, from experience, that where vaccination has been per formed perfectly, small pox oc curring after it is almost univer sally a safe disease; and though ushered in by severe symptoms, has hardly ever failed to be cut short before it had reached that period at which it becomes dangerous to life. This controlling power of vaccination must be admitted as next in importance to its preventive influence, and surely justifies our high estimation of the value of this great discovery. The board has taken care to promulgate to all its correspondents, by repeated admonitions, those modes of conducting the process of vaccination, which ample experience within its own immediate sphere of observation. has ascertained to be the most successful. It cannot be denied, my lord, that the continuance of the practice of inoculation for the smallpox is the main source of whatever disappointment we have met with; for, in those countries where the legislature has interfered to prohibit it, and to enforce vaccination, the small-pox has become almost unknown, and the full benefit of this valuable discovery is enjoyed: but similar results, we know, cannot be looked for in the United Kingdom, until the whole community shall concur voluntarily in this salutary practice. We have only to add, that 6,933 persons were vaccinated last year at the several stations in London; that 48,105 charges have been given to the public; and that 77,467 have been vac cinated in Great Britain and Ireland by our immediate correspondents only; making a total of 84,400 vaccinated last year-a EXTRACT OF TREASURY MINUTE, Dated Aug. 10, 1821.-REDUCTION and ALTERATION in the ESTABLISHMENT. MY LORDS ;-In calling upon the heads of the other departments of his majesty's civil government to enter upon a revision of their respective establishments, with a view to such economical reductions as may fulfil the intentions of his majesty, expressed in his answers to the addresses of both houses of parliament, think it right to state the principles upon which they have proceeded, and the course they have followed in the revision of the establishment of the Treasury under their immediate direction. They have thought that they should best carry into execution the intentions expressed in the addresses of parliament, by keeping in view the following general rules : 1st. That every office was to be restored to the situation in re spect to the number of persons employed, and of their respective emoluments, in which it stood in 1797, unless some adequate cause continued to exist which rendered some alteration necessary in future; and that the mode of regulation which seems in all respects most eligible, is to require, that the individuals themselves who may hereafter enjoy the benefit of superannuation allow ances, should be called upon to contribute to a superannuation fund, to be administered under the direction of their lordships, and according to the following regulations, viz. :— All persons holding offices, the salaries or pecuniary emoluments of which, after revision, amount together to 100%. a-year, or upwards, and who are entitled to superannuation under the act 50 Geo. 3rd, c. 117, to contribute 5 per cent of such salaries or emoluments to a fund to be called "The General Superannuation Fund." (My lords will have under further consideration what directions shall be given with respect to offices not amounting to 100l. a year.) My lords are of opinion, that in addition to the above rate, which may be considered as a fair contribution to be required from the individuals who may be entitled to superannuation under the act of the 50th Geo. 3rd, c. 117, in aid of the charge incurred by the public in respect thereof, a further contribution may justly be required from those who are in possession of emoluments which have been increased since 1797, and which are greater than it is intended hereafter perma |