MEMOIR OF DAXIEL TREADWELL. 353 



was taken Avith regard to the proposed plans, except a reference to the next city 

 government. The impression seems to have been that the time had not yet arrived 

 when so large an outlay as $500,000 was advisable. Had the Charles River plan 

 been adopted at the outset, and secured from all contamination or diversion, we 

 have good reason to believe it could have been made to supply all the pure water 

 that would have been needed in the city for the fifty years following Mr. Tread well's 

 report.* 



In 1833, on the election of General Theodore Lyman, Jr. to the Mayoralty, Mr. 

 Treadwell addressed to him the following letter : — 



"Sir, — In the vear 182-5, I was employed bv the citv government to examine the ponds and 

 rivers of this vicinity, for the purpose of determining whether it would be practicable to supj)ly 

 the inhabitants with good and wholesome water for all the purposes for which it might be 

 required. After a full examination of the subject, I submitted a report to the Mayor and 

 Aldermen, in which it was shown that it was perfectly practicable to obtain and distribute 

 through all the principal streets a full supply, and that at a cost not exceeding 8600,000 in 

 the outlay. Since that time the attention of the City Council has been called to the subject 

 occasionally by the Mayor, and committees for investigating it have been several times ap- 

 pointed by successive Councils. So far as I am acquaiuted, all of these have acknowledged the 

 importance and the practicability of obtaining a good supply of water, but none of them have 

 made anything like an earnest and vigorous effort to accomplish it. Perhaps the short period 

 for whicli the members of the municipal govei'ument are elected has an unfavorable influence 

 upon efforts for this purpose. People are not naturally disposed to enter ardently upon 

 projects while possessed with a fear that they may never be permitted to accomplish them. 

 Without stopping, however, to inquire why nothing has been done to supply our city with 

 water, let us turn to what it may now be expedient to do for this purpose. To this end, sir, I 

 take the liberty, at the moment of your election to the first magistracy of the city, to present 

 to you a statement of some of the principal advantages which the city could derive from a good 

 supply of good water, with no small confidence that, if your attention becomes fixed upon 

 them, you will commence and continue unremittingly in an effort to obtain them. It is 

 unnecessary to cite to you the argument or authority derived from the almost universal prac- 

 tice of the cities of Europe, botii in remote and in present times, to supply themselves with 

 water by aqueducts from some great external source. 



" To that class of people, however, who see in the present too much disposition to innova- 

 tion and scheme, it may not be useless to state that this project is warranted by the examiilc 

 of the oldest cities, and has been followed by others in succession to the present time. The 

 practicability of obtaining for Boston a sufficient supply of water for all purposes is not to be 

 doubted, whatever difference of opinion there may be as to the best mode of obtaining it. The 

 great question is that of expediency, and this may perhaps be best resolved by considering it 



* The quantity of water passing the WaUham mills was estimated at a steady dinv of 40 eiibic- feet a second, 

 or over 26 millions of eallons daily ; a subsequent, more careful examination made the flow, in the mouths of 

 August, September, and October — the three driest mouths in the year — equal to 30 millions of gallons daily. 

 In 1886 the daily supply to the city was 36 millions; the highest, 41 millions. 



