and  the  Cause  and  Prevention  of  Floods. 
399 
for  the  issue  of  Commissions  of  Sewers.  This  statute  was 
amended  in  the  reign  of  William  IV.,  but  the  principle  of  its 
original  constitution  remained  unaltered.  The  purpose  for 
which  the  Courts  of  Sewers  were  created  was  the  preservation 
of  marsh  and  low  lands,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  sea-banks, 
and  other  defences,  and  the  removal  of  impediments  and 
obstructions  made  in  the  streams  or  sewers  by  the  erection  of 
mills,  mill-dams,  weirs,  gates,  &c.  They  were  to  have  survey 
over  “ all  walls,  fences,  ditches,  banks,  gutters,  gates,  sewers, 
callies,  ponds,  bridges,  rivers,  streams,  watercourses,  &c.” 
Romney  Marsh,  a tract  of  low  land  in  the  county  of  Kent, 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  to  have  benefited  by  this 
Act ; and  the  rules  there  adopted  for  the  guidance  of  the 
court  formed  the  precedent  for  subsequent  courts  ; and  it  is 
to  places  of  this  description,  and  the  Fens  and  marsh  lands 
on  the  East  Coast,  that  the  action  of  these  Commissions  is 
confined.  They  have  no  general  control  or  jurisdiction 
over  the  watercourses  of  the  country.  They  exist  principally 
for  the  maintenance  of  existing  works,  but  have  power 
to  construct  new  works,  when  necessary,  for  the  more  effec- 
tually defending  and  securing  any  lands  within  their  juris- 
diction against  the  interruption  or  overflowing  of  the  sea, 
or  for  draining  and  carrying  off  the  superfluous  water ; but 
such  new  works  cannot  be  made  without  the  consent  of  the 
owners  or  occupiers  respectively  of  three-fourths  of  the 
lands  lying  within  the  district  proposed  to  be  charged 
with  the  cost.  The  court  has  power  to  raise  money  for  the 
maintenance  of  existing,  or  for  the  construction  of  new,  works, 
by  an  acreage  tax  on  lands  lying  within  the  level.  Under  the 
Land  Drainage  Act,  1861,  Commissioners  of  Sewers  may  be 
issued  for  districts  where  they  have  not  formerly  existed,  under 
the  authority  of  a provisional  order  issued  by  the  Inclosure 
Commissioners  and  confirmed  by  Parliament ; but  the  machinery 
for  obtaining  such  an  order  is  too  complicated,  and  the  power 
given  too  limited,  to  be  applicable  to  any  extensive  area  or  to 
effective  drainage  by  means  of  arterial  streams. 
The  next  legislative  attempt  to  deal  with  drainage  was  an 
Act  passed  in  the  present  reign  (10  & 11  Viet.  cap.  38)  ; but 
this  only  related  to  the  drainage  of  estates,  and  gave  proprietors 
power,  under  certain  conditions,  to  improve  the  outfalls  of  their 
drainage  by  opening  out  or  improving  the  watercourses  passing 
through  lands  lying  below  them  ; or,  by  summary  proceedings 
before  two  justices,  procuring  the  clearing  or  scouring  out  of 
the  channel  of  any  stream  where  the  proprietor  has  failed  or 
declined  to  do  so. 
In  1861  a most  valuable  and  important  Act  was  passed 
