The water question. Memoir addressed to the Commissioners appointed by His Majesty ... to inquire into the state of the supply of water to the Metropolis / [J. Wright].

  • Wright, J. (John), 1770?-1844
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The water question. Memoir addressed to the Commissioners appointed by His Majesty ... to inquire into the state of the supply of water to the Metropolis / [J. Wright]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    un Canal de derivation de la riviere d’Ourcq, qui amenera cette riviere dans un bassin pres de la Villette.” The municipal body of Paris were afterwards authorized, by a special law, to borrow seven millions of franks to finish the Canal. It is now on the eve of completion, and it promises to afford tenfold the quantity of water to Paris previously supplied. To look nearer home. The city of Edinburgh receives a supply of excellent water, from a distance of eight or ten miles. Under the able direction of the late Mr* Rennie, Mr. Telford, and Mr. Jardine, and at an ex¬ pense of only £175,000, the most magnificent works of the kind in Great Britain have been completed. The water is excellent; and the quantity to each inhabitant is nineteen gallons per day; and not less than 280,000 gal¬ lons are daily permitted to run to waste. In real utility, they rival the boasted aqueducts of ancient Rome, and are the admiration of all scientific strangers. If such mighty works, then, have been accomplished in former times, and, recently, in the capital of a branch of the united kingdom, what is there in the features of the present age, that should deter the inhabitants of the richest, largest, most populous city in the world—the seat of a more opulent body of nobility and gentry, than is to be found in any other metropolis—from attempting to remove from that city a national disgrace / Emperors, we are told, have founded their chief glory on the encouragement which they had given to similar works; and the splendid and useful improvements, that have been effected in this metropolis, under the auspices of his present Majesty, warrant the conclusion, that he would delight to patronize an undertaking, which has for its sole object the security of the health and the com¬ fort of a million of his subjects. It is generally admitted, that London, with respect to architectural improvement, has made greater advances,