angements in this case with the mill-owners, were made by
contract, and not by force of any arbitrary power, and the success of
the enterprise, in the drainage of the lands, the prevention of damage
by floods, especially in hay and harvest-time, and in the improvement of
the health of vegetation, as well as of man and animals, is said to be
strikingly manifest.

This act provides for a "water-bailiff," whose duty it is to inspect the
rivers, streams, water-courses, &c., and enforce the due maintenance of
the banks, and the uninterrupted discharge of the waters at all times.

COMPULSORY OUTFALLS.

It often happens, especially in New England, where farms are small, and
the country is broken, that an owner of valuable lands overcharged with
water, perhaps a swamp or low meadow, or perhaps a field of upland,
lying nearly level, desires to drain his tract, but cannot find
sufficient fall, without going upon the land of owners below. These
adjacent owners may not appreciate the advantages of drainage; or their
lands may not require it; or, what is not unusual, they may from various
motives, good and evil, refuse to allow their lands to be meddled with.

Now, without desiring to be understood as speaking judicially, we know
of no authority of law by which a land-owner may enter upon the
territory of his neighbor for the purpose of draining his own land, and
perhaps no such power should ever be conferred. All owners upon streams,
great and small, have however, the right to the natural flow of the
water, both above and below. Their neighbors below cannot obstruct a
stream so as to flow back the water upon, or into, the land above; and
where artificial water-courses, as ditches and drains have long been
opened, the presumption would be that all persons benefitted by them,
have the right to have them kept open.

Parliament is held to be omnipotent, and in the act of 1847, known as
Lord Lincoln's Act, its power is well illustrated, as is also the
determination of the British nation that no trifling impediments shall
hinder the progress of the great work of draining lands for agriculture.
The act, in effect, authorizes any person interested in draining his
lands, to clear a passage through all obstructions, wherever it would be
worth the expense of works and compensation.

Its general provisions may be found in the 15th Vol. of the Journal of
the Royal Agricultural Society.

It is not the province of the author, to decide w