39 



moment a Royal Commission is sitting in solemn con- 

 clave to determine whether our metropolitan river is " a 

 limpid translucent crystal stream," or in the same condition 



as 



"The river Rhine it is well known, 

 Doth wash your City of Cologne ; 

 But, tell me, nymphs, what power divine 

 Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine ? " 



But the subtle advocates of the purity of Father Thames 

 and many other rivers, I dare say, will tell us, " Oh, we 

 know they are polluted ; but they are not dangerously 

 impure ! " I ask these said gentlemen the following ques- 

 tions : Are we to await some fearful- epidemic to bring us 

 to our senses, which would indeed force the responsible 

 authorities, at the point of the bayonet, to cease polluting 

 our waters ? Are we to wait until the obdurated nasal 

 organs of these doubting officials can count 



"... two and seventy stenches, 

 All well defined and several stinks ? " 



or, are we to take the preliminary warning that the 

 Almighty seems to me to be giving us ? When waters 

 cease to be a healthful natural element for the salmon and 

 trout, they surely must have in their composition some 

 impurities that are dangerous to the thousands of human 

 beings, and also the herds of cattle that slake their thirst 

 from these once limpid, but now polluted waters. 



Two frightful catastrophes have lately taken place, and 

 the hearts of Englishmen have bled for the childless ones of 

 Sunderland, and the widows and fatherless of Glasgow ; 

 surely these poor forlorn ones have our deepest sympathy ; 

 but great as this fearful hecatomb has been, can it be com- 

 pared to the annual (and I insist preventible) slaughter 

 daily going on within our shores, with the thousands cut 



