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29
yet the filthy matters which composed the insoluble
deposit were in the highest degree offensive-confirming
in a most unmistakeable manner the conclusion
of the Select Committee appointed by Parliament
to inquire into the Metropolitan Water Bills
for 1867, that "the use of cisterns for the purpose
of storing water for consumption is probably a more
fertile cause of impurity than any pollution of the
river from which the water is drawn." So forcibly
was I impressed with this when I gave my evidence
before the Royal Commission on Water Supply in
1868, that, in reply to the chairman as to my views
respecting a constant service in London, I said
that, "as an abstract question, there can be no
doubt that the constant supply is a very advantageous
thing to the public, chiefly because they would get
their water cooler, more grateful, less liable to the
pollution to which it is now subject after it is
delivered by the water companies; and if the question
really turned upon the state of the water in poor
people's houses, I should say that the constant supply
to them, whether it be in a court by a stand-pipe,
or whether it be in their own yards by a standpipe,
would be a boon, the good of which is
hardly to be calculated." Having regard for this
matter, I have earnestly endeavoured to abolish the
cisterns and butts in the houses of the poor of the
City, by advising that they should be replaced by a