SEWAGE AND SEWAGE RIVERS. 1 59 



sold is of course enough to pay abundantly those engaged in 

 the manufacture; but they have made such terms with the 

 municipality as to ensure them a profitable business. It 

 appears, on inquiry, that neither does our primitive method 

 or no-method pay, nor the refined method of Paris. The 

 expense there of cleaning a cesspool is seven francs, and it 

 must be emptied as soon as filled. The expense of cleaning 

 Manchester is about £8,000 a year for the 250,000 inhabi- 

 tants, making for each about 7d. a year. In Edinburgh the 

 value of the ground, manured by a very careless method of 

 using some of the refuse, has been raised from a trifle to 

 £150,000, which is to be taken as the value of that portion 

 of the manure which is there used, being equal to £7,500 

 a year. This is the sum which the property would fetch in 

 the market, and the sum the proprietors would be entitled 

 to if the sewage were taken from them, according to certain 

 legal opinions. The proprietors have also had suflBcient 

 power in the city councils to prevent any success in de- 

 priving them of their privileges. 



We may conclude from the practice of these three cities, 

 Paris, Manchester, and Edinburgh, that there is in existence 

 no complete plan for the treatment of the refuse of a town, 

 although the plan in Edinburgh shows that such a system is 

 not only possible, but in the highest degree successful, and 

 only wanting in profit to Edinburgh, because that town has 

 not seen its value in time but has left its riches to those who 

 were more diligent. The experiment is, however, a great one; 

 the subject is one which must now take a most prominent 

 I lace in our home affairs for many years to come, until it 

 shall be decided that it is as unwise to destroy the property 

 of the country by losing the refuse, as it is to allow goods to 

 be burnt in warehouses and in shipping, as is our custom, 

 without taking the means of precaution which are placed in 

 our reach. 



I thought these remarks necessary before bringing the sub- 



