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14 HOUSE-DRAINAGE.
parts of the City might be described as having a
cesspool-city excavated beneath it.
I beg most earnestly to press on the consideration
of your Honourable Court, the extreme importance
of proceeding with all convenient speed
to alter this very faulty construction, and to substitute
for it an arrangement compatible with the
health of the population.
While addressing you on this subject, and while
congratulating your Honourable Court on the
fact, that public attention is so much directed to
a matter in which your exertions are certain to
effect large and salutary reform, I cannot refrain
from expressing a wish, that more accurate knowledge
prevailed among the public as to the history
and jurisdiction of the nuisance in question. It
seems constantly to be forgotten, that your responsibility
in the matter dates but from last January.
The cesspool nuisance has been the slow growth of
other less enlightened ages, not in the City merely,
but in the whole metropolis, and in all other towns
in England. The extreme injury which it inflicts
on the health of the population, and the vital necessity
of abating that injury, are points which only
began to claim attention in this country about ten
years ago, and which have since but very slowly
been forcing their way (chiefly through the indomitable
zeal and perseverance of Mr. Chadwick) into
that share of notice which they deserve. House-