THE CLOACA MAXIMA.
IN his plan for a great drain a hundred feet below the surface, Mr. Philips has thrown out a challenge that must be fully ac- cepted. He proposes a vast main pipe, eight feet high, to extend from the Richmond valley into the marshes of Essex or Kent, and ultimately to the sea, so deep as to be independent of the river, relieving all the quarters of the nietropolitan districts high and low, and the river itself; purifying even Lambeth and the new dietriets towards Battersea, undermining the incurable spots which are the opprobria of London, and giving ue back our river is the natural purity of its spring and its tide. It may be an impractidable scheme ; but that must be shown publicly and un- equivocally. It may be impracticably expensive : let that be proved. Mr. Philips says not—he says that it would be covered by a rate of only sevenpenee in the pound at one lump, or by a rate of a farthing,- in the pound for a term of years ; surely not a large sum to pay for a healthy atmosphere? It may not be so good as other designs that are to be had : let us have them fully, and publicly expounded, and judged in public by competent and responsible authority : 'Mr. Henry Austin, Secretary to the Board of Health, defends a scheme which is before the Metropolitan Commissioners as better, and of which the principle is to dispose of the more solid refuse by distribution as manure. That ?nay be a better p/en—we do not prejudge the question ; but we must be satisfied that it is a better plan, on sufficient authority. Mr. Philips must be accepted, confuted, or excelled. And as to the magnitude of the work, surely that needs not alarm us. We are not a smaller people than the Ronaans, or even the Etruscans, dimly descried in the remotest periods of history.- If the plan is not impracticable, of course we have the wealth, the labour, and the science to complete it, and the only thing wanting must be the sufficient spirit and, daring—that spirit which rises above the retail genius of our times. But in- deed we have, for the utterance of the two designs proves it. The sole question seems to be, whether our official Managers are up to the marl:.
Previous page
