people,
remember, I mean, not only the hand-working man who has just got a vote;
I mean the clergy of all denominations; and the gentlemen of the press;
and last, but not least, the scientific men. If those four classes
together were to tell every government--"Free water we will have, and as
much as we reasonably choose;" and tell every candidate for the House of
Commons,--"Unless you promise to get us as much free water as we
reasonably choose, we will not return you to Parliament:" then, I think,
we four should put such a "pressure" on government as no water companies,
or other vested interests, could long resist. And if any of those four
classes should hang back, and waste their time and influence over matters
far less important and less pressing, the other three must laugh at them,
and more than laugh at them; and ask them--"Why have you education, why
have you influence, why have you votes, why are you freemen and not
slaves, if not to preserve the comfort, the decency, the health, the
lives of men, women, and children--most of those latter your own wives
and your own children?"

But what shall we do with the water?

Well, after all, that is a more practical matter than speculations
grounded on the supposition that all classes will do their duty. But the
first thing we will do will be to give to the very poorest houses a
constant supply, at high pressure; so that everybody may take as much
water as he likes, instead of having to keep the water in little
cisterns, where it gets foul and putrid only too often.

But will they not waste it then?

So far from it, wherever the water has been laid on at high pressure, the
waste, which is terrible now--some say that in London one-third of the
water is wasted--begins to lessen; and both water and expense are saved.
If you will only think, you will see one reason why. If a woman leaves a
high-pressure tap running, she will flood her place and her neighbour's
too. She will be like the magician's servant, who called up the demon to
draw water for him; and so he did: but when he had begun he would not
stop, and if the magician had not come home, man and house would have
been washed away.

But if it saves money, why do not the water companies do it?

Because--and really here there are many excuses for the poor old water
companies, when so many of them swerve and gib at the very mention of
constant water-supply, like a poor horse set to draw a load which he
feels is t