Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/251

 In 1870 Mr. Beal induced the Government to give notice of its intention to improve the water-supply of London. Unfortunately, the good intention, like so many others, went to pave the unmentionable region spoken of by Dr. Johnson; but the subject has not been allowed to drop. It has been demonstrated at influential public meetings, recently held, that the present metropolitan water-supply is unsatisfactory as regards purity, cost, and the poundage principle of assessment. Put the water-supply under representative instead of company control, and it is calculated that seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum can readily be saved to the ratepayers. In attempting to deal with this question, the late Home Secretary acted with such imprudence as to precipitate the dissolution that wrecked the Government, Mr. Beal skilfully fanning the flame of discontent excited by his monstrous proposals.

In 1876 Mr. Beal broke new and most important ground. "Fearing lest an increased education-rate should render the cause of scholastic enlightenment unpopular, he set himself to investigate other possible sources of revenue, and an altogether remarkable series of papers on "The Corporation Guilds and Charities of the City of London," contributed to "The Dispatch" and signed "Nemesis," was the result. The revelations were simply astounding. The corporation, with a revenue of three million dollars per annum derived from the "common good;" the liveries, with more than five million dollars issuing out of trust funds; and the city charities, with a good five hundred thousand dollars annual income,—were shown to be one vast network of corruption and malversation. Ab uno disce omnia.