a scheme which was to cost six millions to
carry out, and three hundred thousand a year
to work.

The Board have approved a plan prepared by
an eminent engineer, Mr. George Hemans, for
reclaiming a large part—about ten thousand
acres—of sea-sand in Essex, and creating on it,
by the constant irrigation of London sewage,
the fertility presented by the Edinburgh
meadows. This plan will secure to the inhabitants
of London the steady absorption of the whole
sewage of the north side of the Thames. It
will turn this worthless tract of sea-sand into
meadows worth five or six hundred pounds per
acre, while the huge brick culverts, forty miles
in length, which will conduct the sewage to
flow by gravitation over the sands, will be so
arranged that the farmers on either side,
occupying something like eighty thousand acres,
will be able to obtain either a constant supply
for a complete sewage farm, or occasional
irrigation in times of drought; an inestimable
boon which will enable them to save in dry
seasons roots, cabbages, lettuces, grass, or
other thirsty crops, by a timely application
of a gigantic watering-pot, without incurring
the expense of the elaborate machinery
required by subterranean pipes and hose and jet
irrigation.

Thus will London get rid of her constant
supply of sewage, the Thames be saved from
pollution, and the ratepayers become sleeping
partners without risk in a most promising
scheme of reclamation and irrigation.

WANTED TO BORROW, ONE
HUNDRED POUNDS.

HAS it ever been your fate, reader, to be in
want of money? I don't ask whether you have
—for all men have, and women, too, for that
matter felt a temporary pressure caused by an
empty purse, or a much too small balance with
your banker. But have you ever known what
it is to feel that, unless you can by a certain
—and not far off—day find a sum of money
which to your means bears about the same
proportion that half a million sterling would
to a City magnate of the second class, you
would come to grievous trouble? To
illustrate what I mean, I will tell my own tale
of what recently befel me in matters monetary.

I had backed a bill of one hundred pounds for
a friend. Of course the said friend promised
most faithfully that I should never hear of the
document again; it was "a mere matter of
form." Equally as a matter of course, when
the bill fell due my friend could not pay it, and,
to avoid proceedings being taken against him,
"kept out of the way;" in other words, he
betook himself to the Continent. Unfortunately
for me, my occupations prevented me leaving
London, and so within twenty-four hours after
the bill was dishonoured, I received a lawyer's
letter requesting me to pay the amount at
once—the word used was "forthwith"—with
interest, and further to remit the writer
six-and-eightpence for the letter he had there
and then written to me. I was further
informed, that if I failed to comply with any one
of these demands, "immediate steps would
be taken to compel payment, without further
notice."

At the time I received this pleasant epistle, I
had at my bankers the modest sum of forty-four
pounds seven shillings and sixpence, and in a
few days more my month's salary of twenty-five
pounds would be payable. On the other hand,
it was close upon Christmas. The butcher,
baker, grocer, children's school bills, rent, rates,
and taxes—to say nothing of my own tailor, my
wife's milliner, and the bill for "the girls'
clothes" had all to be paid. If I managed to
make tongue and buckle meet for the past
quarter it would be as much as I could do, and
now I had the additional burden of this one
hundred pounds thrown upon me. I sat for
some time contemplating the letter I had
received, wondering by what process a man could
be "compelled" to pay money when he had not
the wherewith to pay it, and thinking whether
it would not be a good thing to learn the secret,
in order that I might sometimes apply it to
myself.

At last I resolved to be up and doing. I
went to call upon the solicitor that had written
me the letter, and was by him referred to the
holder of the bill. I called upon the latter, and
was referred back to the solicitor. To this
gentleman I exposed the exact state of my
finances, and showed him how that, unless I was
given time, it would be utterly impossible for
me to meet the bill. When convinced of this,
the attorney promised to see his client, and to
let me know what could be done. A day or two
after, I received a letter from him, stating that if
I could get another householder besides myself to
join me in a fresh bill for one hundred pounds at
two months, pay ten pounds down, and insure my
life for one hundred and fifty pounds, the holder
of the bill would not press me for immediate
payment.

These terms I declined, but offered to pay
ten pounds down, in order that I might have
time to look about me, and see whether I could
not raise the money. This was agreed to, but
I, unfortunately, did not ask for the agreement
to be in writing. I paid the ten pounds, on a
verbal understanding that proceedings were to
be stayed for the present, and the next day was
served with a writ.

Now a writ upon a bill of exchange is a
thing not to be trifled with. You cannot, to
use a legal term, "enter an appearance" when
sued upon such a document. As the solicitor
to whom I applied for advice informed me, once
a writ is served upon any one for a bill of
exchange, he must either pay the money within
twelve days from the time of such service, make
up his mind to have an execution put in his
house, or, should he have no property that can
be seized, be arrested. I had, therefore, exactly