The Paris Sewage Irrigation at Gennevilliers. 
121 
The manufacturing chemist who supplied the sulphate of 
alumina has lately been moved to enter public life ; and at the 
last election for municipal honours he managed so skilfully, 
that the old Corporation, who had authorised the City of Paris 
to lay their mains and distribution canals along the parish 
highways, were turned out of office, mayor and all, and the 
chemist was elected to the civic chair, where he now reigns 
supreme, surrounded by a council of his own choosing. 
Who would have thought that such a matter-of-fact question 
as that of sewage could have arrayed in opposition to its peace- 
ful, if not over-fragrant, sway, so powerful a champion as 
universal suffrage I 
One of the first deeds of the new municipality was to organise 
a most determined attack upon the whole scheme ; and one of 
the first steps taken was to denounce the contract which had 
been signed between the former Corporation and the City of 
Paris. Then a most vehement petition was sent to the Legis- 
lative Assembly, and it was discussed in the House at the sitting 
of the 18th of November last. 
I will not enter into the merits of this opposition, which 
mainly rests on grievances having but a temporary, I might say 
accidental, foundation, and the fons et origo of which lie in 
motives having a personal rather than a public interest. Suffice 
it to say, that the complaints preferred by the new municipality 
chiefly referred to the excessive use of the sewage, which had 
the effect of flooding the cellars of the village by raising the level 
of the subsoil-water. This grievance, as we shall see presently, 
is, to a certain extent, legitimate ; but as it can easily be remedied, 
it ought not to be alleged as a reason why the application of the 
system should be stopped altogether. 
Unfortunately for the cause of the complainants, another peti- 
tion, signed by a nearly equal number of landholders, but 
advocating a diametrically opposed scheme, was presented at the 
same time, contradicting the facts and arguments of the new 
Gennevilliers Corporation, and praying not only for the con- 
tinuance, but for the extension of the irrigation system. Another 
significant fact is that not one of the landholders who are using 
sewage on their fields has joined the dissentients. 
The Minister of Public Works, and the eminent Paris engi- 
neer, M. Krantz, had therefore no trouble in refuting the 
petition of the Gennevilliers Municipality ; and the whole matter 
was referred to the Minister, who in his speech had sufficiently 
foreshadowed his opinion to leave very little hope of success 
in the minds of the worthy mayor and his sympathetic coun- 
sellors. 
The total quantity of sewage that can be poured over Genne- 
