

THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



Series. 



VOL. III.] MAY, 1827. [No. 17. 



THE WATER COMPANIES SUPPLY FURNISHED TO THE 

 METROPOLIS. 



" Carry his water to the wise woman." SHAKSPEARE. 



A CONSIDERABLE degree of uneasiness, and some sensation approaching 

 even to alarm, have been excited in London during the last six weeks, 

 owing to a report that the supply of water furnished to the inhabitants 

 at least in one district of town the quarter supplied by the " Grand 

 Junction " Company was of an offensive and unwholesome character. 

 A pamphlet, entitled " The Dolphin," which accuses the Grand Junc- 

 tion Company of serving their customers with water " disgusting to the 

 imagination," and " destructive to health/' has been followed by a 

 meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster, for the purpose of devising 

 means to remedy the evil, and by a notice from Sir Francis Burdett, that, 

 immediately after the recess, he should bring the subject before Parlia- 

 ment for consideration. As the complaint, however, of the persons who 

 are taking these measures, has extended itself, beyond the single case of 

 the " Grand Junction " Company, to the conduct and arrangements of 

 nearly, if not absolutely, all the water companies in town ; and as the 

 cure proposed for the existing evil, real or supposed, appears to be the 

 getting-up of a " New Joint Stock Water Company," with a capital, 

 raised in shares, of some three or four hundred thousand pounds ; as this 

 proposal is one which, on the face of it, may well excite distrust, a short 

 examination of the real extent of the grievance under which the public 

 labours, and of the degree in which the proposed speculation would be 

 likely to remove it, may not be entirely useless to our readers. 



The chief questions which would seem to suggest themselves upon a 

 review of the late proceedings as to the supply of water in the metropolis, 

 would be these : Whether the supply of water furnished by the " Grand 

 Junction " Company (peculiarly) is, or is not, of a fit and wholesome 

 quality ? whether the price at which water is supplied by the companies 

 of London generally be moderate and reasonable ? whether the sharing 

 out of the town among themselves in districts, by the water companies, 



M.M. New ,Sm>.vVoi. Ttl. No. IT. 3 N 



