128 Transactions. 



ever, to undertake to construct the works themselves is shown by 

 the terras of the minute of 1 9th November. Mr Broom having- 

 explained and read Mr Jardine's report, the Provost said he 

 thought it would be most advisable for a joint-stock company to 

 take up and carry through the scheme ; and Mr Broom stated 

 that the former Council never intended to carry through the pro- 

 ject with the public funds. The measures were merely prelimi- 

 nary, and by proving the practicability of the scheme inducing a 

 company to take it up. At a meeting of the inhabitants, held 1st 

 January, 1834, to consider what should be done, the proposal to 

 apply for new bills was disapproved on account of expense, and it 

 was resolved instead to adopt the General Police Act. The water 

 supply scheme was now postponed indefinitely, and, beyond being 

 mooted once or twice, the question lay dormant until the begin- 

 ning of the year 1848, when it ag-ain came to the front. 



In the interval, through the exertions of scientists, by Govern- 

 ment Commission reports, and in other ways, public opinion, 

 without which schemes of this kind could not be enforced, was 

 stimulated and ripened for the advancement of sanitary reform, and 

 the wave gave impetus to the proceedings in favour of the intro- 

 duction of water here. " Sanitary improvements," says a writer in 

 the local newspaper of 1st February, 1848, " seem now to have 

 cast railways and almost every other topic into the shade." Under 

 such favourable circumstances did the revival of the water-supply 

 movement take place ; but the difficulty as to the method to be 

 adopted in carrying out the scheme remained, and the circum- 

 stance that Dumfries and Maxwelltown were separate burghs 

 added to it. At a Town Council meeting, held 14th January, a 

 Committee was again appointed to make arrangements for the 

 formation of a water company. Time went on without any 

 approach to the accomplishment of that end ; and meantime, on 

 May 30th, it was reported in the local newspapers that cholera 

 had appeared at Constantinople. About six months later, 16th 

 November, the epidemic reached Dumfries, where for the space of 

 two months it continued to decimate the town. The visitation 

 still further impelled and made imperative the introduction of 

 water ; and light as to the method of proceeding came at last. The 

 town of Stirling had obtained a water bill in favour of the Town 

 Council. This was an example, and, influenced by it, on 6th 

 March, 1849, it was resolved that the scheme here should not be 



