Several letters have reac...
Several letters have reached our of fice, complainin,a of the dreadful state of insecurity to which London has been reduced, by the want of water to supply the engines, on recent occasions of fire, in diferent parts of the nhetro- polis. The outcry is, indeed, universal: and if well founded, it is one which cannot obtain a too speedy or anxious notice from those who have in tbeir power the means of adequate redress. WVhen a competition existed between the Water- companies, the public had rcason to be satisfied with the abund&nce in which an element, so essenitial both to com- fort and to safety, was distributed among all the inba- bitant5 of this great town: but now the competition has ceased, and the usual consequence follows; each company having assigned to it a certain portion of London, and being secure from rivalship within its ovn domain, enjoys a complete imonopoly of the market, and inflicts upon those wvbo are rather its vassals than its customers, the ordinary measure of contemptuous inisolenice, and easy impartial oppression. Nor can any reasonable remedy be thought of, but such as may either bring the cause of the evil-the monopoly itself--to an end, or may impose a penalty upon every abuse of it severe enough to coerce the Water.compa- nies into an honest discharge of their duty. In flatton-garden, and more particularly at the great fire in Greville-stregt, our correspondents have been assured by the firemen, that the flarnes might; casily have been extinguished had water been obtainable'byi any humaneffbort. For want of it, only two or three enginas could play out of more than 20 that attended. It is most desirable that the ruinous montopoly which at present flou- rishes and donineeX% g iy should be broken up by the establishmei;jti r companies, formed out of-the sper- I fluousApo.ti'f the country and in all cases we would ooftnWend, that rvhere the supply of water is proved to be dieficient, the Insurance Companies hould: be-iven by Parliament a right of action against those ivhose bisihiess it is to furnish the means of putting out fire, and that the damages should have no other limit than the loss whlich, through their itegligence, may be actually sustained. The sources whence water can at a moderate expense be procured, are, we learn, quite plentiful, and at no distance worth mentioning, on the north side of Lon,lon. But-whe- ther the expense be large or little, the grievance, as it stands, is perfectly intolerable; and to devise some effec- tual means for its removal, onaght to be one of the very foremost objects at the etisuing session of Parliament.