J 827.] Supply furnished to the Metropolis. 465 



Thus it appears, we think, pretty plainly, that the whole of the new 

 race of water companies, so far from being in the condition of having made 

 large gains, have not paid any thing like a competent interest upon their 

 capital. 



Then with respect to the proposal of our new company, to do a great 

 deal more, and a great deal better than any other speculators have done 

 before us any attempt at general competition for the supply of the town 

 on the part of a new water company, would be absurd and impossible. 

 The trade is already carried on at a less cost than it could be if such general 

 competition existed. The several companies, taking each a particular dis- 

 trict, are enabled to supply their customers at much less original expense 

 than they could do if those customers were widely scattered. The Chelsea 

 Company, taking its trade entirely at the west end of the town, is enabled 

 to serve its 8,000 houses -at an incomparably cheaper rate, than if one-half 

 of those houses lay in their present situation, and the other ' half where 

 they must have new pipes and mains laid down to them at Bethnal 

 Green or at Mile End. This proposition we take to be so clear, that we 

 need waste no time in enforcing it. 



In fact that state of things which the persons who complain of the con- 

 ventions of the water companies, describe as " competition," but which in 

 more fairness should be called " opposition," is one which, in the water 

 trade, we apprehend can by no possibility exist. Nothing can be more 

 certain than that, if a dozen companies, instead of five, existed in London, 

 there would still be so far a want of what is described as " competition," 

 that orders might be offered to every one of those companies, which they 

 would be compelled to refuse, leaving the customer, as he is left now, to 

 depend upon the company which had local convenience for serving him, 

 or to shift for himself, independent of any general supply at all. That the 

 termination of the contest which existed ten years ago between the West 

 Middlesex Company, the Grand Junction Company, and the New 

 River Company, may have disappointed the customers that profited by it, 

 is very likely. And so, if any two or three persons were bespattering 

 each other with mud, it would be a loss of amusement to the populace 

 that looked on when they left off. But, in plain reason, the only real 

 wonder is not that " division" eventually took place of " competition," 

 among these parties ; but that it did not take place of it long before. The 

 same mistake will not be made again. Because an opposition between 

 two water companies does not stand upon the same ground with an oppo- 

 sition of steam packets, or stage coaches. The main point of hope on 

 which each party relies in these last cases, is the retreat of the other 

 party out of the market; a course which in the first case is barred. The 

 only alternative, in a struggle between two water companies, is compro- 

 mise or extermination. The coach master, growing tired of a contest, 

 can employ his coaches and horses upon another road; or he carries 

 them to auction, and sells them to some one else for their value. But, 

 in the case of the water company, their whole capital is vested in works, 

 which as the people say who advertise the papers lost in their pocket- 

 books " are of no use to any but the owner." They have a property on 

 hand, which may be used to some slight profit ; but which, sold, produces 

 nothing. They are not dealers in an article, which they pay for, piece- 

 meal, as they dispose of it, and which, therefore, they will cease to trade 

 in when they cease to make a profit upon it; but' they are the holders of 

 M.M. New Series. VOL. III. No. 17. 3 O 



