SEWAGE OF LONDON AND OTHER LARGE TOWNS. 147 
Bazalgette, I find that the history of the present question 
of London sewage dates from the year 1847, when, instead 
of the eight separate commissions which had previously 
existed, a consolidated one was appointed. This was 
shortly followed by a second, which advertised for and 
obtained 116 plans. A third and fourth commission re- 
ported against those plans, and appointed Mr. Forster as 
their engineer, who, after preparing a plan for the drain- 
age of the north district of the Thames, died in conse- 
quence of the anxieties of his position. A fifth commis- 
sion was embarrassed by the plans of the ‘“ Great London 
Drainage Company,” which, after occupying a great part 
of the session of 1853, were ultimately rejected by parlia- 
ment. In 1854 Messrs. Bazalgette and Haywood prepared 
a scheme, but another proposal by Mr. Ward having re- 
ceived the sanction of the Secretary of State, a sixth 
commission was appointed, which invited plans but arrived 
at no conclusions. In 1856 the Metropolitan Board in- 
structed their engineer to report and prepare plans. Sir 
B. Hall proposed modifications which were adopted. This 
final plan was submitted to three referees, viz., Captain 
Galton R.E., James Simpson C.E., and Thomas E. Black- 
well C.E., who reported thereon in July, 1857,* and, on 
their report being objected to by the Board, suggested 
material modifications of the plans proposed in the report 
submitted to parliament by Her Majesty’s first Commis- 
sioner of Works. A further communication from Messrs. 
Galton and Simpson, involving a third plan with further 
modifications, was made in January and February, 1858. 
Finally, at the request of the Metropolitan Board, Messrs. 
Bidder, Hawksley and Bazalgette reported on the 6th of 
April, 1858, on the plans of the government referees as 
from time to time modified. This last report, which in 
* Report on Metropolitan Drainage, ordered by the House of Commons 
to be printed 3rd August, 1857. 
VOL, XV. xX 
