Trunk Drainage. 
33 
disobliging fellow occupiers ; and it seems that, with anything 
less than a compulsory general litatute, too arbitrary for English 
notions of freedom, tenants, who are fearful of giving offence, 
and small owners who are careful of using tlieir independence, 
will always be liable to hindrances of their drainage, as well as 
to encroachments on their roads or fences, from unscru])ulous 
and selfish neighbours. 
But the Act is really deficient in a most important particular 
as regards these provisicms relating to minor drains : it contem- 
plates merely the cleansing and scouring of existing ditches, no 
pi'ovision being made for iridening, deepening, and straiglitcning 
such as are shallow and tortuous, witliout whicli it is too often a 
waste of money to interfere with tliem. Nor could we expect an 
Act to entrust mere magistrates with the power of cutting away 
any man's land at their pleasure ; so that while we have here a 
remedy for some very gross evils, an arrangement of a nature 
altogether different must yet be established before we get the 
improvement we desire. 
Having now shown what legal facilities have been gradually 
created for the reclamation of low grounds and flooded valleys 
on the one hand, and the improvement of internal minor water- 
courses and ditches upon the other, we must inquire for a few 
moments ichether considerable or even trijiing changes in our mode 
of legislation upon this subject, or whether merely a more extended 
and enlightened application of j)resent laios hg the localities concerned, 
are required in order to furnish this kingdom with a proper 
drainage? First, with respect to our main rivers and the lands 
they inundate, it is clear that special acts of Parliament are as 
able to achieve the same wonders in one low tract tliat they have 
done in another of similar character ; and as by tlieir instrumen- 
tality numberless districts of fen and marsh have been drained, 
and some most important river improvements, of the very kind 
we wish to make universal, admirably eff"ected, what further legal 
machinery need be employed for the same purposes in future ?* 
* I am aware that success has attended the exertions of the Commissioners 
under the Act of 5th and 6th Victoria (subsequently aniended\ for pronu)tiug the 
'Drainage of Lands, and Improvement of Navigation and Water-Power in con- 
nexion with such Drainage, in Ireland.' But Irish and English legislation have 
seldom stood upon a common basis, or led to identical results in both countries, 
so that we can hardly reason from one to the other. The machinery of this Act 
resembles that of the later English Act ; but, of course, with more multiplied 
powers and provisions. One of its excellent points is, that the proprietors or 
tenants for a life or lives, &c., of more than half the number of acres can bind the 
rest of the district ; and that where one individual possesses more than half, the 
rest can outweigh his decision. The Annual Keports of the Commissioners — who 
have drained many thousands of acres in different districts by excavating cuts, open- 
ing the main rivers, constructing weirs, locks, sluices, removing mills, &c. &c. — 
are highly interesting and important. But let iis hope that " Boards of Works " 
may not be so necessary for these purposes here as in the sister Island, where (as 
VOL. XV. D 
