16 



Session, 1864. 

 Recommen- 

 dation of 

 Committee of 

 the House of 

 Commons, on 

 Sewage of 

 Towns. 



See Lord R. 

 Montagu's 

 Speech, 8th 

 March, 1865, 

 on the "River 

 Waters Pro- 

 tection" Bill. 

 — Hatisard, 

 3rd Series, 

 vol. 177, 

 p. 1310. 



12 Oct. 1864. 

 Memorial of 

 Borough of 

 Sheffield, 

 [Pari. Paper, 

 6 March, 

 1865, page 5, 

 No. 105,] to 

 the Home 

 Secretary. 



" urgently demands the application of remedial measures; 

 " that the discharge of sewage and noxious refuse into 

 " them is a source of nuisance and danger to health ; 

 " that it acts injuriously not only in the locality where it 

 *' occurs, but also on the populations through which the 

 " polluted rivers flow ; that it poisons the water which, 

 " in many cases, forms the sole supply of the population 

 ^' for all purposes, including drinking ; and that it de- 

 " stroys the fish." 



In 1864 a Committee of the House of Commons re- 

 commended — 



" That the important object of completely freeing the 

 " entire basins of rivers from pollution, should be rendered 

 " possible by general legislative enactment." 



And the same Committee reported — 

 " In favour of the practicability of utilizing sewage by 

 " applying the same in the cultivation of the soil." 



In this year, and early in 1865, many towns memo- 

 rialized the Government to carry into effect the Commit- 

 tee's recommendations, among others Nottingham, Shef 

 field, Birmingham, Manchester, Preston, Coventry, Derby, 

 Wolverhampton, Bath, Iluddersfeld, York, Stockport, 

 Cheltenham, and Oxford. The memorials, &c. (or ex- 

 tracts from them) of Sheffield, Nottingham, of the 

 Botherham and Kimberworth Board of Health, and of 

 Birmingham and York, are as follow : — 



■ Memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of 



" Sheffield in Council assembled. 

 " Sheweth, 



" That the practice of discharging seiverage and other 

 'foul matters into streams and rivers is productive of 

 'great injury to the health of the p)eople, in consequence 



■ of the pollution of the ivater. 



" That this sewerage may be converted into a permanent 

 ' and increasing source of agricultural fertility by being 

 • conducted upon the land. 



" That although it is a nuisance at co7nmo7i law to 



■ discharge any sewerage into rivers, yet the law is in- 

 ' operative from various causes. 



