CHAP. XL] THE SEWAGE QUESTION. 133 



three days we should have laid him in his grave. Happy it is 

 for us that we cannot read the future ! 



One of the members of the Croydon Board of Health made 

 an eloquent speech on this occasion, in which he several times 

 reproached Mr. Smee with the absurdity of wishing to draw a 

 concord round the farm at Beddington. The absurdity was 

 evident to other persons besides the speaker, for as he sat down 

 amid general cheering, the following epigram was handed to 

 Mr. Smee : 



" To think a man the Croydon Board on 

 Should take a concord for a cordon I " 



