by Loans from Government or Public Companies, 143 
sources, would represent an aggregate outlay of no mean 
amount. 
The figures quoted include, in some instances, money laid out 
in Scotland. If this were deducted, the average annual expen- 
diture of borrowed money in England and Wales would probably 
be reduced to about 300,000/. a year. But this amount does not 
indicate the extent of benefit resulting from the operations of the 
several Acts. 
The effect has been felt far beyond the limits of the works 
which have been executed. 
Superior intelligence has been brought to bear, resulting in 
an union of science with practice which cannot have failed to 
offer examples highly advantageous to the country at large. 
Moreover, at least one-third of the money expended has already 
been repaid, and has returned into the channels whence it was 
diverted. 
The Inclosure Commissioners who have controlled the expen- 
diture have been influenced only by the desire to act justly to 
applicants for loans, as well as to the reversionary interests which 
they are specially called upon to protect. Their Inspectors, 
though not all selected from the same rank in life, have been 
animated by one desire, to improve the quality of the works 
they have been called upon to inspect ; and the landed interest 
has had the additional benefit of the special skill and experience 
which have distinguished the several Companies. 
P.S. This article would be imperfect as an epitome of recent 
Legislation on Land Drainage and Estate Improvements in England 
and Wales, were not some reference made to two Acts of Parlia- 
ment, which have passed the Legislature, since Mr. Pusey's Act 
of 1840, for the improvement of outfalls. 
The first which l)ecame law was that of the 10 and 11 Vict., 
cap. xxxviii., called " Lord Lincoln's Act," which merely pro- 
vides for the compulsory clearing of existing ditches neglected by 
those whose duty it is to keep them open : and the other is 
known as the " Land Drainage Act, 1861," 24 and 25 Vict, cap. 
CXXXIII., which enables owners of land to obtain compulsorily 
an outlet for the water of drainage through any person's property 
interposing between the lands drained and the natural outfall. 
The expenses and trouble, of putting either measure into opera- 
tion, practically act as a bar to proceedings under them as far as 
simple outfalls go. 
J. B. D, 
22, Whitehall Place, Westminster, 
February 1867. 
