§ MR. EASTWICKasked the President of the Board of Works, Whether he will cause inquiries to be made into the alleged insalubrious state of the Regent's Canal, which at North Gate is covered with green slime, and is even yet worse at Maida Hill, and causes alarm to persons in the neighbourhood in view of the approach of cholera?
§ MR. AYRTONreplied, that as far as he could ascertain, the condition of the Regent's Canal was not so bad as it had 1767 been in previous years. It certainly was not agreeable to look at, inasmuch as it was used merely for the purposes of trade and not for ornament. A person who had resided with his family on the banks of the Canal for 18 years wrote to him to the effect that a green weed floated on the surface at this period of the year, but that he could not detect any unpleasant effluvium arising from it. The writer added that in his experience of the Canal it was never more free from an offensive smell than at the present moment. If anything were wrong the District Officer of Health would be the proper person to take notice of the fact, and should that officer fail in the discharge of his duty, the Home Secretary would be bound to interfere if applied to.