WASTE LANDS AND WASTE WATERS. 155 



and do not expect to, were I to reach the ago of 

 a hiuidrcd years. 



Well, then, in the United Kingdom there is cer- 

 tainly, and to all intents and purposes, ^' a waste 

 of water^'' that might be made advantageous and 

 pleasurable to its possessors; and Avhile they them- 

 selves got pleasure and income out of it, a vast 

 store of wholesome and delicious food might go 

 to fill out the pinafore of the restless baby, the 

 '' Constitution," some of whose pretended nurses 

 in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square are per- 

 petually sticking pins and needles into its pillows, 

 to make the uneasy bantling call out and cry to 

 them for their removal. 



But if we agree to the position, and none of us 

 can help doing so, there does extend over tJte 

 United Kingdom a large watery extent that re- 

 turns neither food nor pleasure of any kind, save 

 as a bath, and that the stump-orators of Hyde 

 Park and Trafalgar Square, and other sects, always 

 avoid, what am I to say of the vast portion of 

 waste land which exists, like the water, with 

 very little amusement or food upon it, so loudh^ 

 referred to by demagogues, as sites purposely 

 withheld by peers and large proprietors from 



