6 
Arterial Drainage 
and duties of Commissions of Sewers have been reared. The 
Commissions of Sewers thus established only extend to certain 
parts of the kingdom, and they have no general jurisdiction or 
control over the water-courses of the country. The number of 
commissions now in force, issued pursuant to the Act of Henry 
Vm.'s reign, is thirty-one. 
Modern Drainage Acts. — The next legislative interference was 
by the Act 10 6c 11 Vict. cap. 38, known as "Lord Lincoln's 
Act." Under the powers of this Act, upon application to the 
Inclosure Commissioners, depositing plans, giving notice, and 
other forms, a landowner whose drainage is injured by want 
of a proper outfall may, subject to paying compensation, enter 
upon the lands of the adjoining proprietor to " widen, straighten, 
deepen, divert, scour or cleanse any river, stream, ditch or 
drain, brook, pool or water-course, and to make, open, and cut 
any new water-courses, side-cut, &c., and to alter or remove 
any bank, sluice, floodgate, weir, &c., or other obstruction, 
and to make or erect any bank, &c., or other works necessary 
for drainage or warping." (Sect, ix.) Also, by sect. xiv. pro- 
vision is made that where there is neglect by any proprietor in 
properly maintaining the banks of any stream, or cleaning and 
scouring out the channel, the party aggrieved may apply to 
two Justices for an order to do the work himself, the expenses 
being recoverable before the Justices by summary process. If 
the stream is a boundary adjacent to the lands of the aggrieved 
person, the work can be done without the preliminary order, the 
cost of the work being recoverable in the same manner. 
This Act gave very valuable powers to individual pro- 
prietors for perfecting schemes of improvement in drainage on 
their own lands, by obtaining an outfall where required through 
the land of others ; but it afforded no facilities for joint action 
and the levying of equally distributed rates, or for dealing com- 
pulsorily with that small minority who are always sure to rjse up 
to thwart any joint scheme of voluntary improvement. 
The large works of drainage improvements and reclamation 
of land which had been effected up to the year 1861, had all been 
done under the authority of special Acts of Parliament, the costs 
of which were so great as to offer an insuperable bar to works 
that were not of great magnitude. To meet this difficulty, in the 
year 1861, an Act was passed (25 & 26 Vict. cap. 33), to further 
amend the law relating to drainage, by which facilities were 
given for the formation of Drainage Trusts for carrying out 
works of improvement. It has already been stated that in the 
Fen districts and some other parts of the country Commis- 
sioners of Sewers existed, under whose control the existing 
water-courses were placed, and who under certain restrictions 
