Jfo. XXXVI.A.] APPENDIX. 393 



mended that the sewage when withdrawn from the river should be placed 

 on the land. AH these results were obtained by the powers of the High 

 Court of Chancery, and not by the good sense and neighbourly feeling 

 of the Croydon Sewage Board. Evei-y statement was met with as flat a 



denial as gives to the complaint of the great nuisance which 



has been created; but truth upon oath prevailed, as it will again, if 

 necessity demands. On the occasion when a cartload of trout was 

 destroyed in the river and proceedings were pending, the Board relaxed 

 their usual arrogance, and they asked the favour of my friendly advice, 

 which was readily given, and the costs of Chancery proceedings were saved 

 to the ratepayers. If Nature is interrogated in sincerity and truth, we 

 shall assuredly find a satisfactory solution of the difficulty. The inves- 

 tigations of the phenomena which are presented in sewage-grounds is 

 confessedly difficult. Perhaps there are not ten men in Europe, and 

 of these not two in England, who are competent to unravel the physico- 

 physiological problems of a sewage farm ; and therefore, whilst I am 



quite prepared to give credit for a desire to the proper conduct 



of his sewage-grounds, I would ask him to consider how far he has the 



requisite knowledge to dogmatize on the subject. Whilst eulogizes 



the manner in which the sewage-grounds are conducted, where are the 

 sanitary engineers to approve it, though any one of them could rid them 

 of much of their abomination ? 



has avoided the question as to how many tons of water- 

 cresses have been sent from the sewage-grounds during the last six 



months. denies that badly-conducted sewage-grounds cause 



disease in cattle. I affirm it. It becomes then a matter of credibility 

 of statement. My affirmations in the former cases were accepted by 

 the Court of Chancery ; those of his party were discredited, and a decree 

 was obtained. The same exactness and truthfulness which carried the 

 causes before will carry them again, if the disease in cattle should ever 

 occur under circumstances when oaths can be administered. Perhaps 



, from his habit of using universal denials, is not aware that his 



letter of the 20th is little short of an accusation of fraud. Does not 

 this come with a bad grace from a party who have suffered from repeated 

 judgments, to which they have submitted P I have neither interest in nor 

 favouritism to any particular sewage process, though inventors have 

 generally submitted them for my inspection, and I believe that no person 

 wishes to interfere with sewage farms if they are properly conducted, but 

 every one desires to aid the cause when they are conducted in the spirit of 

 earnestness and truth. 



October 22. 



