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11
places remote from that locality. To put the question
in a practical shape, I will ask: Can the health.standard
of Shoreditch be improved by works having for their
object the diversion of the sewage from the Thames ?
Is there any malaria emitted from the Thames capable
of being wafted over the intervening space in such a
form as to produce sickness amongst you ? In putting
the question in this shape, I am not exposing myself
or you to the charge of looking at the Main.Drainage
Schemes from a parochial or selfish point of view. For
"Shoreditch" any other district of the metropolis might
be substituted. If the question, as applied separately
to the districts which in their aggregate constitute the
metropolis, be answered in the negative, the problem
now engaging the anxious attention of the whole
metropolis, will be solved.
In a Report dated 23rd November, 1856, which
has deservedly excitcd much public attention, your
Chief Surveyor, Mr. Freebody, urged many forcible
objections against the principles of the Main.Drainage
Intercepting Sewer schemes. These objections were
directed from an engineering point of view. In two
Reports, one for the quarter ending December, 1856,
the other for the quarter ending September, 1857, I
called in question the truth of the assumption upon
which hangs the expediency of resorting to any scheme
for diverting the Sewage from the Thames. Unless it