The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-08 00:00:00

REPORT OF THE RIVINGTON WATER

TO THE EDIT3R OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.
Sir,—l hold it tu be, the ditty of Et reporter for
the public press, to narrateletithfully every event
which may come under his cognisance, for on his'
authority the public are Called- upon to form their
judgment. He ought to see- with ;his own eyes,
hear with is own ..ears,,and place on record such,
and only such, facts as,come under the cognisance
of his own senses. He must divest himself -of
feeling of every kind if lie would aspire to' what
really ought to be a most honourable position',
namely, a faithful and honest exponent of the
events which pass around him, and which he may
from time to time have to narrate for the benefit
of those who may not,,have, his opportuOities of
observation. At least .suelt is my view of what
ought to. be the linty of a newspwer reporter;
and, acting upon it, I informed you, and, of clurtse,
through you, the public-that-ern a very recent visit
which I made to the Rivington, Waterworks,l
obseried•that on one side of the -Rivington reser
voir,'from causes whichl explained, the water was
coated with matter which, to my senses at least,
appeared not only offensive but iciest 'disgusting
Having explained the 'peculiarity of the vorlis, I
said, “Almost for the entire distance from the Black-
Boy to Horwich Bank the surface of the .water is
covered with a black scum, similar in-every respect
to what may be seen occasionally at George's Dock
basin. This may be lifted in masses, its smell is most
offensive, and the •appearance-of the water under_
neath.it is, such that -no Christian would really
give it to his pigs. Mark -ma, sir, this is no ex•
aggeration."
• Now,: sir, in making this statement,. 1.,0n1y
'narrated what came under my own observation—
what you and every other inhabitant of Liverpoed
might have seen and-felt--may see and feel. :And
in order that I might not be misunderstood in my
description I added' emphatically, this is no exag-
geration. And I called Upon those who doubted,
or discredited, my statement,. to go and judge for
themselyes.

I perceive, on perusing the proceedings of yes-
terday's. Council, that a met icier;' after quoting the
paragraph from my reoort, says, or is represented
as having'said—" Now he (Mr. Stitt) happened to
be in the position in which the writer said they
ought to be, before they happened to dispute his
statement. He (Mr. Stitt) had been,-,to. Rivington
very recently. He had gone through the whole
district, and traced' 'the `stream from its very
fountainhead where the water first trickled through
the sand stone grit, down to the filtering beds.
He had gone step by step over the district, and, as
a man who had a love for truth, he could give the
most unqualified denial to the villainous statements
which had appeared in .the papers in regard to the
water. It was necessary that some person in the
position he was in,"should give a contradiction to
such calumnious and grassmis-statements, calcu-
lated as they were to excite the Maim of the people
of the town."

No*, sir, I will not dispute that the gentleman
has been to Rivington, that he has Seen the works;
with the Town Clerk or hisdepUty on one side and
the Water Engineer on the other, but he has. not
seen both sides of the Pike—l have. A mernb-er
Of.the council, especially if ho is a Pikeist, is pri-
vileged to hazard any statement, however erroneous,
in its favour, and it, is sure to be accepted with
applause by 06 fadtion.- The 'charge preferred
against me of Making " Villanous - statements," is
certainly rather, a strong one, coming from the
quarter which it does. I am neither a Pikeist nor
a privileged member of the Town Cduncil, otherwise
I would characterise the charge as, a '' villainous"
falsehood As it is. I simply say it is deeply to
be regretted that gentlemen who are looked up to as
models of honour and veracity should so far forget
themselves as to make use of language, even,
in the heat of debate, calculated to arouse
the angry passi.mia of those whom it is their
duty to instruct in truth and decency.
The Pike appears to have operated as a sort of
moral pestilence on nearly all who have had the
Misfortune to come within the reach of.its blighting
influence Hence. we have seen the most en-
ilgatenea, the most puuanturov.,,
and virtuous of our citizens, when once inoculated
with its fatal virus, become the greatest tyrants, in
their Way, that earth ever bore on its surface

What I saw at Rivington is to bo seen yet.
—aye, and more. And if Mr. Stitt has ever
inspected the works, as I have done, he must have
seen the same. If his object had been " the love
of truth," in twenty-four hours he could have seen
as much gas refuse, human and bestial excrement,
&c., &c., in the Rivington reservoir as would load
ono of his mud flats without difficulty.
Mr. Stitt only saw what the Pikeists choose to
show him. Had he gone, as I, for the love of truth,
did, he would have come to a very different con-
clusion:—l am, sir, . Youa REPORTER