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appointed and visited several baths, but the price of the proposed site was too much for the
Vestry. In 1892 the Borough of Shoreditch Liberal Club urged the Vestry to proceed in the
matter, and in October of that year the Acts were adopted for the third time ; since then the
gentlemen who took the matter in hand had been hard at work, and they were thoroughly
satisfied with the progress of the building and the work which had been done. (Cheers.)
The architects having presented a silver trowel to Mr. Sawell, beautifully engraved with
the name and date and enclosed in a handsome case, a choice bouquet of (lowers was handed
to Mrs. Sawell by Miss Beatrice Freeman, daughter of a member of the committee.
The stone was then steadied into its position by Prof. Stuart, Mr. Lowles, Mr. Ward and
Mr. Wallas, the commissioners standing round, and the function of the day having been duly
performed, Mr. Sawell, amid the applause of the company, declared the stone well and truly
laid. The block of granite, which will face Pitfield Street, is suitably inscribed and the bottle
placed inside contains coins of the realm, a document signed by the committee, copies of the
current issues of The Times, and The Hackney Express and Shoreditch Observer.
A "Snapshot" having been taken, the speeches were proceeded with.
I
Prof. Stuart, M.P., who was heartily received, said it was his pleasing duty to propose
a vote of thanks to Mr. Henry T. Sawell, J.P., Chairman of the Shoreditch Vestry, for laying
the stone on the present occasion. Mr. Sawell had nearly fulfilled a year of office as Chairman
of this important Vestry, and he felt sure he only expressed the feelings of those present and of
those of the Vestry in saying he had filled it to the public satisfaction. (Cheers.) It was a
great pleasure therefore to be able to move a vote of thanks to him, inasmuch as he had taken
part in one of the most important ceremonies likely to be connected with that important
borough. They had seen the laying of the foundation stone of the baths and washhouses, but
that was only part of a large and important undertaking on which the Vestry of Shoreditch had
entered with general approval. (Cheers.) Where they were now standing was about to arise a
group of important municipal buildings, containing not only these baths and washhouses, but
also an electric lighting undertaking, and means for destroying the dust and for utilizing the
power created ; and last but not least a great and important public library. The public effort
bound up in these various undertakings was of no mean character and order. As he was
returning from abroad this year it was his fortune to pass through some of the ancient cities of
Italy, and he could not but have his attention called, as that of any traveller there must be
called, to the great enterprise of the public hundreds of years ago, which placed those cities in
the front rank of civilization. And it was not that only ; alongside of the public enterprise was
private enterprise, of which the whole city was proud. And he ventured to say that in Shoreditch
to-day—no mean city, although not separated by walls from the rest of London—they had
as in the Italian cities of old, a union of public and private enterprise which did credit to their
citizens. (Cheeis.) There was room for both ; there were regions in which private enterprise
was best and most efficient, and regions in which public enterprise was best and most efficient.
Such regions they were occupying to-day in their public undertakings ; matters in which the whole
public right and convenience were interested, matters which fairly belong to the public as a
whole and which public spirit alone can carry through. (Cheers.) They had to-day an embodiment
of that in the very best form in the undertaking whose foundation they were met to
celebrate, and whose completion doubtless before very long they would have an opportunity of
celebrating. He called the attention of that gathering, representing all sections and classes of
opinion in that great borough, to the fact that what they were carrying through of a public
kind in Shoreditch was carried through by the general consent of the people. Looking around
on that meeting it would be seen that in the public undertakings of Shoreditch they recognise
no denominational or political differences, but they had a noble and noteworthy instance of a
great community acting agreeably with one another in great public undertakings for the public