SECT. VlJ RESULTS OF THE INQUIRY. 



245 



SECTION VI. 



PROPOSED MEASURES TO OBLIGE LANDOWNERS TO 

 IMPROVE THEIR ESTATES. 



WE come now to lands already in cultivation. There is 

 throughout Ireland an urgent necessity for drainage, and 

 a general Drainage Act has been repeatedly recommended 

 by Committees of the House of Commons. There is also 

 in most parts of Ireland a want of such boundary fences 

 as by law ought to be maintained ; and the agricultural 

 reports made to us are full of the mischiefs thus occa- 

 sioned to the country. 



By an Act passed in 1831, entitled "An Act to em- 

 power landed proprietors in Ireland to sink, embank, and 

 remove obstructions in rivers/' and which is commonly 

 called Mr. More O'Ferral's Act, companies of undertakers 

 may be formed, under certain regulations, for the purpose 

 of carrying on drainage in any part of Ireland, but no 

 companies have been formed ; and although the Act, if 

 carried into general effect, would have proved of infinite 

 value, it has unfortunately remained a dead letter. We 

 think the provisions of it and of the English Sewers Act 

 may be modified, incorporated, and extended, so as to 

 cause all lands to be kept duly drained and fenced, under 

 the direction of a competent authority. 



Under the English Sewers Act, which is one of the laws 

 of the Bedford Level, but is applicable to the whole of 

 England, Commissioners may be appointed for any county 



