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CONCLUSION.
41
dead bodies in their decay, were no more to desecrate
the breathing-space of the living; water
was no longer to be supplied—clumsily, insufficiently,
and unwholesomely, at the discretion of
private capitalists : all was to be amended.
For participation in these advantages, the City
had to look beyond its own representatives, and to
await the more comprehensive measures of Her
Majesty's Government.
Two years have elapsed, and none of the measures
referred to has made visible progress. The waterquestion
remains unsettled; arrangements for extramural
interment of the dead have been disconcerted
at what seemed the moment of their completion; the
river still receives the entire sewage of this immense
metropolis, and still at each retreating tide, spreads
amid the town, as heretofore, its many miles of
foœtid, malarious mud.
In justice it should indeed be remembered, that any
one of the required amendments could only be the
result of long preparatory labour, and that its organisation
would often of necessity be the travail of
some single mind, not insusceptible of fatigue.
Particularly as respects the scheme (now understood
to approach its maturity) for the complete drainage
of the Metropolis, it cannot be overlooked that very
extensive surveys, superficial and subterranean, with
innumerable drawings and specifications, were necessary
to the construction of so comprehensive a plan.
But neither can it be disguised or disregarded, that