Page:A protest against the extension of railways in the Lake District - Somervell (1876).djvu/83

 true of many others. The cesspools overflow the highways; an open field is used as a slaughter-house; so many people live in the same building that they have to go to bed in turns; while in one case fourteen people slept in one great round bed with their feet to the centre. Water is a necessity of life, but it does not exist. The river we have already described is the substitute discovered for it by the nineteenth century. The historian of the University of Lagado, when he represented one of its professors as endeavouring to produce food by a process which we had rather not specify, little thought that the day would come when his description would be far from a satire. The town of Wakefield has solved the problem, and derives much of its sustenance from the source referred to. Paracelsus is said to have invented a perfume of the same material, and, were not the West Riding already so well supplied, enterprising tradesmen might turn their attention to a new means of profit. The time will come when a water merchant's trade will be a very important one, and when the manufacturer will set before his guests as a princely treat a bottle of some celebrated year, ascertained by analysis to be free from organic matter.

No sense escapes in the new order of things, and the shrill scream of the 'buzzer' can be heard at a distance of miles. Thicker and more deadly smoke is vomited forth each year, and no attempt is made to deal with the evil. Lord Winmarleigh presented a petition the other day for an amendment of the Acts relating to noxious vapours, and said that he knew a property which had been all but destroyed by them. 'The trees in it were like a forest of masts even at midsummer, and whereas there were formerly on it oaks worth £100, it would be difficult now to find in or anywhere near it an oak or other tree worth a hundred shillings. The Duke of Richmond, in reply, assured their Lordships that the Government felt the importance of the subject. If Goodwood were only between Leeds and Bradford, the Duke's assurance would be far more valuable. In those