Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-18 00:00:00

DRINKING FOUNTAINS.

IT were creditable to Liverpool under any circum-
stances to set a good- example to the capital of the
kingdom ; but it is especially so, when the example
presents an instance of -individual generosity which
even the great metropolis itself is so far unable to
furnish. We allude to the Drinking Fountains in
our streets, which London has determined to copy,
as now an established and acknowledged means of
benefitting large bodies of the people. At a public
meeting recently held in furtherance of the import-
ant object, under the presidency of the Earl of
CARLISLE, the noble chairman observed, that " this

was not a new subject in the provinces, for in Liver-
pool an example had been set them that they should
be proud and wise to follow. The project had been
set on foot, and the great part of the expense paid
by a spirited young merchant of that town, Mr.
CHARLES MELLY. There had been forty-six foun-
tains erected in Liverpool, and out of that number
Mr. MELLY had paid for thirty-five." This was
certainly making honourable mention of Liverpool,
and of its benevolent citizen, - whose munificent act
can thus, as it will for ages yet to come, be told as a
memorial of him. With respect to their popularity,
it was further stated, that forty-three of the Liver-
pool fountains were resorted to about 15,000,000
times in the course of the year ; so that, at this rate,
it is computed there would be 94,000,000 drinker ,a
year in London, if furnished with fountains in pro,
portiOn to its size.

And London, it appears, has much more need of
public fountains of pure cold water than Liverpool
had. For the Pump water there—which is almost
the only water they have that is altogether suitable
for drinking —is generally execrable. With the ex-
ception, it was stated, of Berkeley-square and other
high and gravelly soils, the pumP water of the
metropolis is so impure and unwholesome that the
people are imbibing, in some instances rapid, and in
otherS slow poison, and unless this were guarded
against, it is believed, they will have nothing but
disease among their working population. This fact

alone,—as fact it was, on high authority, declared to
be,--were of itself sufficient to show the urgent neces-
sity there is for such fountains in London. One's
great wonder is, now that' the subject is brought
under consideration, and the exigencies of the case
are pointed out, that the metropolis, above all places
in the kingdom, should never before have recognised
the great need there was for them, not only as a
public convenience, more particularly to the working
population, but indeed, with these at any rate, as
one of the necessaries elite. The matter, however,
is now taken up in a -manner that cannot fail to
s. At the meeting we refer to, the
following resolution was unanimously adopted,—
" That whereas the erection for the metropolis of
free drinking fountains, yielding pure cold water,
would confer a boon on all classes, and especially
contribute to the health and temperance of the poor
an association be formed for erecting and promoting
the erection of and maintaining such fountains in the
metropolis, to be styled ' The Metropolitan Free
Drinking Fountains Association ;' and that contribu-
tions be received for the purposes of the association."
And the contributions immediately began to pour in

insure its succes

so abundantly, as to leave no reason whatever to
doubt that the object will be promptly accom-

plished

It is strange, we say, that a great public conveni-
ence—nay, the provision for a great public necessity

s import-

by made all the more urgent. When the

population of our principal cities and towns was
smaller—long, long ago—fountains, or something
equivalent to them, were generally provided and
maintained. Even London, in the olden time, had
1 around ; but as

pumps

s wel

the population grew denser, and every vacant
plot of ground got crowded up with buildings,
they were too often either removed, or so built
in as to be no longer accessible to the public.

Of course with this extension, and increase, the

necessity of a provision of pure drinking water, to
which the working classes, in particular, could have
free and convenient access, became proportionately

greater

,—whereas it was made proportionately less !

that we are aware

of, been attemptet

, to supply so great and increasing

a want

It is satisfactory to observe that too much hass not
of the advantages of fountains
in promoting water-drinking as the sole beverage

It is true, Lord SHAFTES-
BURY took occasion to expatiate on what he called
" the evil of men being compelled to go into public-
houses to quench their thirst, when they Would, be
glad to avoid them if they could obtain pure water
without going into them,"—urging, at the same

of the working elasses

time, that the evil of drunkenness grew upon men
more from necessity than from desire to become
drunkards." But we very much doubt the correct-
ness of this conclusion. It is probably true, as the
noble lord stated, that " a return had been made to
Parliament by which it appears that £56,000,000 is
spent annually for spirits, beer, and tobacco, and