34 
Trunk Drainage. 
The cause of the present disparity in the condition of our im- 
proved and untrained streams lies not in tlie varying degrees of 
efficiency of law power in different places, but in the differing 
amounts of will and ability tiiere manifested toward the work. 
Our fens have been the nursery of drainage-works, and in no other 
country can more complete and extraordinary excavations and con- 
structions for the purpose be found — begun in tlie first instance 
out of the necessities of the situation, but brought gradually to a 
pitch of great perfection because, according to the recent testi- 
mony of one well qualified to judge, "all the gentlemen in that 
part of the world are cnfiineersP And until the Hooded popula- 
tion of our inland valleys renounce their preference for sodden 
pastures, rank hay, and damaged health and property, and 
become alive to the immense benefits of good drainage, and the 
demands of the present age, we shall not witness any striking 
improvement there. 
As I have before said, I regard the legislative poivers attainable 
in local acts of Parliament as sufficient to meet the difficvlties in- 
volved in improving mill-streams and large rivers, particularly as 
there are so many injured towns that would contribute to the 
expenses ; while the General Act c>/"1847 is equal to the wants and 
means of limited districts. But some better means than yet exist 
must be brought into play against minor drains, tvhere only agri- 
cultural drahiage is concerned. 
In doing this, whatever system we contrive should be a mean 
between the nullity of uncontrollable or sleeping local authorities, 
and the un-English procedure of making the civil Government 
our public drain-cleansers. And we must bear in mind that it 
is not so much the incompetency as the disinclination of defaulters 
to cleanse old drains, and suffer new ones to cross them, which 
forms our chief obstacle ; so that it will be, not so much the 
able engineer and disinterested inspector visiting and advising, 
as the power of the law put without any invalidating conditions 
into the hands of the party seeking relief or improvement, that 
will work effectually. The hydraulic agriculture so surprisingly 
developed in Northern Italy is the fruit of a vast system of 
District Associations for Irrigation, Drainage, Warping, &c. ; 
each self-administering, and all organized under the Government 
engineers. For details of the constitution and regulations of 
these societies, which ought to be studied by all Englishmen 
interested in tlie subject of this Essay, let the reader refer to 
Capt. Smith's work on ' Italian Irrigation.' 
I shall now advert for a moment to a few of the jdigsical 
one of the Reports affirms) " there exists a very general want of knowledge of the 
principles and effect of drainage on a large scale, and a consequent inability to 
understand projects for the purpose, or to appreciate their residts." — J. A. C. 
