9
of the surpassing filth of the last, where it forms the head of the Bridgewater Canal, "no description can give an adequate idea;" adding, that "such is its consistency, it is said birds walk over it," Derwent, Aire, Calder and Don in their respective courses through or near Manchester, Middleton, Rochdale, Bolton, Staleybridge, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Ashton, Stockport, Macclesfield, Walsall, West Bromwich, Burg, Oldham, Derby, Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield, Rotherham, Doncaster, &c., &c., after which the Commissioners proceed to say:—
"If the discharge of solid matters of sewage and other refuse into rivers is prevented, the chief part of the inconvenience, which is now rapidly rising to the proportion of a national evil, would at once be arrested. This can be easily and fully accomplished within reasonable limits of expenditure, and we urge, as the first and all important step towards securing this object, and the permanent improvement and protection of the rivers of the country, that a general local jurisdiction and conservancy be created throughout the kingdom, with adequate powers and proper guarantees for their due administration." Adding (pages 11, 12, 13) that—"Notwithstanding the incompleteness of our inquiry, we trust enough has now been said as to the enormous loss and injury produced in various ways, by the present state of neglect and misuse of our rivers, to secure immediate attention with a view to the adoption of general and decided measures to arrest this great and growing evil.
As regards the deterioration of water for domestic and other useful purposes, the pollution of rivers is an evil of immense magnitude. In extreme cases the water is unfit for any kind of use; but long before this degree of foulness is reached, the water has been unfit for purposes of cleanliness, and from a very much earlier
Birmingham the sewage of 270,000 people, and all the refuse of gas works, pumpings of coal mines, and the drainings of the great district of South Staffordshire. Birmingham always suffers more or less from a type of fever. Its mortality is much higher than that of the Metropolis."
