Italian Irrigation. 
179 
science of hydraulics was making great advance, whilst the 
administration of justice was almost in abeyance. 
In 1570, however, an Italian engineer appears on the scene, 
whose history deserves record as much as that of any of our own 
worthies. * 
Giacomo Soldati was employed by the magistracy of Milan 
to regulate the water supply, and at once perceived that the 
regularity of the discharge turned upon the maintenance of a 
constant head of pressure, " battente stabile^ * He gave in a 
report which did not profess to remove all existing difficulties, 
but to obviate some of the most important. His proposal raised 
a tumult ; a league was formed by encroaching proprietors ; 
Soldati's life was threatened ; rival engineers denounced his 
plan ; but his friends were influential and firm, and within three 
years reforms had been effected whicb placed at the disposal of 
the State a supply of 750 cubic feet of water per second in 
summer, and 150 in winter. In 1576, however, a terrible plague 
broke out ; many of Soldati's chief supporters lost their lives ; 
the work of reform was suspended, and " to this hour remains 
imperfect," the usurpations of the great proprietors having in 
fact now become rights by prescription. 
" The last view we have of Soldati is touching: in the extreme 
Reduced to utter poverty, deserted by his clients, persecuted by 
his opponents, we find him in 1578 appealing for the means of 
subsistence to the magistracy, representing that, as the small 
salary granted to him while his work was in progress had now 
ceased, he was in danger of starvation. The appeal was favour- 
ably received, and a moderate pension of nine lire per diem 
(about 5s.) was settled upon him for life. 
" Such is the history of the invention and introduction of that 
modulo magistrale, which is admitted at the present day to be 
the best means of issuing w'ater for irrigation which we possess." 
" The narrative is not only interesting as a record of inde- 
fatigable perseverance amidst great and ultimately overwhelming 
difficulties, but it is most instructive. It shows clearly the danger 
of allowing a great system of irrigation to develop itself without 
well-defined regulations, of permitting interests to grow up 
either in ignorance or neglect, which, infringing on the rights of 
Government, oppose themselves afterwards with obstinacy and 
vigour to improvement of any kind." 
The next feature of interest in the history of this canal is the 
flood of 1705, which caiTied away the whole of the head works, 
changed the course of the river, and threatened to render useless 
* His suggestions -will be discussed at length further on. 
N 2 
