Page:On the Pollution of the Rivers of the Kingdom.djvu/26

 "Wherefore your memorialists urgently submit that it is absolutely necessary that a Bill should be forthwith prepared under the direction of Her Majesty's Government, and submitted to Parliament early in the ensuing Session, for enabling your memorialists, and other local authorities similarly situated, to accomplish the very important objects herein set forth.

"Given under the corporate common seal of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of the Borough of Birmingham, the day of, 1864."

"The Memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of the City of York, the Local Board of Health of York and for the same City,

"Sheweth,

"That your memorialists regard the present mode of disposing of the sewage of cities and towns as highly unsatisfactory, whether as regards the public health or the economy of natural products applicable to the fertilization of the soil.

"That the pollution of the rivers and streams of the country by the discharge therein of the sewage of adjacent towns is productive of great and increasing evils, by rendering the waters of such rivers and streams unfit for human consumption, and converting what is often the sole water-supply of a town into the fruitful source of disease and death.

"That a Committee of the House of Commons reported in the last Session of Parliament in favour of the practicability of utilizing such sewage by applying the same in the cultivation of the soil.

"Your memorialists therefore respectfully request that Her Majesty's Government will be pleased to introduce such a measure in the next Session of Parliament.

"Given under our Common Seal, at the Guildhall of and in the said City, this 2nd day of January, 1865.

"(Signed), Mayor."

In January, 1865, the Special Commissioners on the Irish Salmon Fisheries, in their report for the year 1864, at page 17, mention that "the Liffey is fearfully polluted by sewage, which at certain place caused instant