I want to ask you a few questions, Mr. Conductor. In the first
place—What am I to do with my beasts? Those I got back from Smithfield,
after two months’ care and no small expense, have come round again, and
I’ve got a few others ready for market; but _what_ market? Country
markets don’t suit me, for I can’t get my price at them; and, as you
know, I would rather kill the cattle myself than send them to
Smithfield.
Again,—What is the Royal Commission about? They have reported against
Smithfield, and why don’t Government shut it up? Isn’t there Islington?
Everything is ready there to open a market to-morrow. I can answer for
that, for I was there yesterday and went over it. I inquired
particularly about the drainage, for, if you remember, Brumpton told me
they could not drain it. Well, perhaps they could not very conveniently
when he was last there, but now they tell me that a thousand pounds
would do the entire job. I’ll tell you how:—You see the market stands
about fifty-one feet above the Trinity highwater mark of the Thames.
Well, close by, in the Southgate road, there is a new sewer, that runs
into a regular system of sewers which drain Hoxton, Spitalfields, and
all that part down to London bridge—and the cattle market being eighteen
feet above the level of the Southgate sewer, it will only be requisite
to cut a culvert into it, for the entire space to be drained out and
out.
Now, my last question is this: Why don’t the people belonging to the
Islington market make the necessary sewer at once? If they did, what
excuse could government have for not shutting up Smithfield, and moving
the cattle market to Islington?
I am, Sir,
Yours to command,
T. BOVINGTON.