The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-29 00:00:00

great evil untouched. Be it remembered that there
are not only 70,000 houses, containing 350,000 in-
habitants (at present totally dependent upon the
scanty and precarious supply of water furnished by
the few public wells of London), to be provided every
day and all day long with pure water, but that pro-
vision is to he made for a constant and unintermitting
supply of water, not only for the whole metropolis
as it at present exists, but for the whole metropolis to
whatever extent it may hereafter spread. To procure
a body of water sufficient for this purpose, there is
but one source to which we can go. The Thames and
the Thames alone can supply a sufficient quantity of
water to meet all the requirements of the metropolis;
and accordingly the Henley and London Waterworks
and Navigation Company (a report of the proceedings
of the promoters of which appeared in The Sun of
yesterday) have done wisely in choosing the Thames
as the source of the supply of water to the metropolis.
But the Thames is, unfortunately, from the Nore up
to Teddington Lock, polluted by the sewerage of the
metropolis arid its suburbs, the contamination derived
from which is held in perpetual suspension by the
perturbation of steamboats. It is therefore neces-
sary, in order to insure a supply of pure water, to go
beyond Teddington; and accordingly the company
proposes to_ tske the carter from the Thanes at Henley.
Of the comparative purity of the water at Henley and
of that at Chelsea, the highest source of the present
supply, our readers may form some idea when they
remember that, independently of the contamination
derived from the sewerage of London, which is
brought up to Chelsea by the tide, the Thames re-
ceives, between Henley and Chelsea, the drainage
derived from a population exceeding 75,000 persons.
The company proposes to bring the water from Hen-
ley to Paddington, where a reservoir will be formed;
and as the Thames at Henley is 106 feet above low-
water mark at London-bridge, which level will be
maintained, with a decline only of three feet, into
Paddington, the water from the Paddington reservoir
will flow, by its own gravitation, to the upper stories
of most of the houses in London, and all the houses
in Westminster and the City ; whilst, by the fall
of water thence to the lower parts of Lon-
don, a mechanical power will be derived, vi hich
will fill a high-service reservoir, intended
to be erected on the top of Primrose-kill,
which will command the highest part of London and
its neighbourhood. The water is intended to ho
conveyed in a navigable channel 19 miles in length
from Henley to West Drayton, where it will reach
the Grand Junction Canal, and be conveyed to Lon-
don either in the bed of that and the Paddington
Canals, or in a separete channel alongside of those
navigations. This will have the effect of diminishing
the navigable distance between Henley and London
by more than 20 miles ; a uniform surface will be
pros rued throughout the whole distance, and to
maintain the purity of the water, the bed of the
whole channel will be formed of concrete. " The
quantity of water," says the author of a pamphlet re-
cently published explanatory of the views and inten-
tions of the company

" The quantity of water intended to be supplied to
London is one huiidred million gallons daily ; and the
present desicn is not to embark in a competition t, ith
established water companies, but, on the contrary,
to contribute to the efficiency and success of those
bodies upon conditions advantageous to the public ; by
enabling the companies, each in its own district, to give
to the smallest house in its own limits, all the water its
inhabitants can want, by perpt tual high service, and at a
cheap rate. Abundance will still remain to fill the or-
namental waters in the parks, to supply fountains, and,
above all, to cleanse the drains and sewers of the me-
tropolis."

The cost of the undertaking is estimated at
Y 50,000/., if the channel is only cut to West Dray-
ton. Should it be deemed advisable to have a separate
channel the whole distance between Henley and Pad-
dington, the additional expense will be about
250,0001. With regard to the revenue that will pro-
bably be derived, the writer of the pamphlet says :

" In calculating the revenue to bo derived from the
undertaking, large allowance has been made for the ne-
cessity admitted on all hands, aid which will preba- ly
be entorced by Parliameet, of diminishing the cost of
water to the labouring classee. All the other water com-
panies it can be proved, and to a certain extent the
New River Company also, will find it more profitable to
buy wat: r from the proposed reservoir and let it fl )w
down their mains, than to pump it up from their 'resent
sources. Assuming them to pay only one penny for
one thousand gallons, and that only one half of the
whole quantity brought into London by the proposed
means produces a pecuniary return, the net annual re
venue will amount to more than nine per cent. on the
original outlay ; whilst the economy of machinery by
tilt: high level of the reservoirs, and the nearly nu-
quantity of water, will enable the various com-
. 11,1 ILIV 4116,1, 109 111. 11.
ofirY to supply abundantly the meanest house in London,
but most materially to diminish their charge,."
It is not so much, however, in a private and pecuni-
ary as in a public and sanitary point of view that we
are inclined to regard this undertaking. That it is likely
to be a profitable undertaking to its promoters we are
rejoiced to learn, because the prospect of profit is the
surest guarantee for its speedy completion ; but, even
if there were no prospect of pecuniary profit, it is
•ne of those few public works which a Govern-
ment would be bound to undertake, because it is a
work from the completion of which every individual
member of the metropolitan community would de-
rive an equal advantage, and in the success of which
every inhabitant of the metropolitan district from
Belgravia to Bethnal-green is equally interested.