Trunk Drainage. 
27 
the general drainage it was found tliat the artificial canals began 
to grow up again, the banks, and indeed the whole surface of 
this spongy soil, began to subside, and the natural rivers remain- 
ing for the most part unfenccd by barrier embankments, and the 
estuaries still choked with tidal sediment as before, tlie Level 
experienced more disastrous floods than ever. About the year 
1690 the Fen-men began to imitate the Hollanders by erecting 
wind engines to lift out the water from their farm-drains into 
some contiguous river. These mills were presented at tiie Court 
of Sewers as nuisances, and ordered to be pulled down. For 
relief the mill builders resorted to a court of equity, the ter- 
mination of the suit was adverse to them, and for a time the 
scheme was laid aside. However, in 1726, Haddenham, in the 
Isle of Ely, obtained a private district Drainage Act (13 Geo. I.), 
and set the example, which, in a few years, spread universally 
over the Level. 
This power of a special Act of Parliament remains up to this 
moment the authority upon wliich all our great modern outfall 
works, all our fen drainages of any magnitude, and the arterial 
works connected with the improvement of rivers, warping of 
land, &c., have been carried out ; and, excepting the extensive 
works of this order which are executed in Ireland by the 
Commissioners of Public IVorlis under a general Act, a Local Act 
is the arm upon which all gi'eat projects now in process of forma- 
tion are relying for the settlement of opposing interests, and the 
establishment of an executive for carrying the design into per- 
formance. 
From the very first escape of our Fen rivers out of the hands 
of Sewers' Commissioners, it has been the custom of undertakers 
and promoters to call in the assistance of engineers, or men 
whose talents had been professionally exercised in drainage and 
banking. This practice, as we might expect, has grown with 
the advancement of the times in intelligence ; so that from the 
Duke of Bedford's Vermuyden, and other local or Dutch 
<lrainers, to Mr. Rennie, and from him to the first civil engi- 
neers of the present day, the Fen works have always been 
under their advice and superintendence, the engineer being now 
as much needed as the solicitor in obtaining an Act of Parlia- 
ment for local drainage. But the autograph letters of monarchs 
and the instigation and leadership of nobles have been super- 
seded, as mainsprings of movement, by the spontaneous percep- 
tions of an enlightened locality, or of foreseeing individuals sup- 
ported by the inhabitants. Necessity first calls for remedial mea- 
sures ; various minds devise plans ; parties form themselves for 
or against a proposal ; public meetings of proprietors awaken 
general attention ; committees are appointed to promote a scheme ; 
