thought he had obtained a good representative Commission of all the talents. Indeed, the selection was a little remarkable, if not unique, and the result showed that it was not wisely conceived. The chief source of the troubles that soon overtook the body was the inclusion of some of the members of the old Westminster Commission, who had assisted Chadwick in upsetting the previous bodies. The same parties had been admitted into the temporary Commission, and had worked hitherto without much friction. To these were added Walter of The Times,-the most disastrous of all the appointments. A number of scientific men were put on to be useful in their several walks: Airy, the Astronomer - Royal; Buckland, the geologist; Dr. Arnott (who never once made an appearance), and Sir James Clark. There were, of course, a number of lawyers. Engineering was represented by Sir John Burgoyne, and by no other professional. I myself was included in the body,-no doubt to be a vote that Chadwick could rely upon in his favour.

The working of this Commission makes a chapter in the sanitary history of London, and is minutely given in a contribution that I made to Chadwick's family of my recollections of his The Commission met weekly at ten o'clock, and committees on other days, in the

career.

office, Greek Street, Soho, from which the Board of Health officials proceeded to the office in Whitehall; continuing at work till half-past five.

The occupation thus involved became a serious addition to the proper work of the office,-viz., the administration of the Public Health Act, augmented by the operations under the Contagious Diseases Act, in consequence of the outbreak and spread of cholera, from the beginning of March to the middle of September. In March, the disease made its appearance in London, as well as in twenty-seven English towns, gradually increasing in virulence and in mortality till September, when it reached the enormous number of 400 deaths

a day in London alone. The consequent occupation consisted in preparing notifications and orders, in sending out inspectors, and in corresponding with the localities. The correspondence arriving at our very slenderly appointed office had reached seventy communications a day; some requiring lengthened answers, which it fell to me to prepare from directions given at the daily meeting of the Board. In the meantime, the Commission of Sewers was rapidly approaching its termination from internal dissensions connected with the main drainage of London; and the Government saw fit to put an end to its existence by a supersedeas

COMMISSION OF SEWERS.

209

addressed by Lord Carlisle to each member, on the 8th October.

In the beginning of October, I went for a holiday to Ben Rhyddyng Hydropathic establishment, -a much more imposing place than the humble Rothesay house where I had stayed in the end of last year. The treatment was somewhat different; but, in the main, the manner of life was much the same-long walks in a fine country of hill and valley. One afternoon, I was able to go as far as Bolton Abbey, a distance of seven miles, and did not seem over-fatigued.

I came back to London in a much better condition as to flesh; the undue increase of weight of Rothesay being now taken down.

I found Chadwick, as usual, pressing on his new projects, and setting everybody to work as much as possible. The nature of my occupation as assistant secretary was now tolerably apparent. There was to be a great deal of consultation from local boards with regard to their mode of proceeding on questions of law and business, as well as sanitary works. A legal education would have been the most fitting prelude to such an office; but this I had not got, and saw no good in attempting to acquire it. I had contrived in stolen snatches of time to do what writing I had been able to execute in my own subjects; but to keep up

this extra work would be a severe strain, and might cause dissatisfaction on the part of my superiors,for, like John Mill, I did a good deal of it in office hours, there being nothing to prevent my doing so, as the official work could not be neglected, and yet did not fill up the time. It was about the end of November that I sounded Page on the engagements of a paying kind that I could count upon, if I gave up the Board of Health entirely. He readily embraced my offer to embark again in the schemes of the Chamberses, pointed out a number of enterprises they had in view, and gave a sort of guarantee that I should never want for paying employment. His more immediate proposal was to take a part in the composition of a new weekly serial, entitled Papers for the People. After I had once hinted to him that I contemplated quitting the Board of Health, he kept urging me to carry out the determination, and come to Edinburgh. The result was, that I gave in my resignation to the Board early in the year, and got away on the 10th of March, 1850, proceeding to Edinburgh forthwith.

CHAPTER IV.

COMPLETION OF PROJECTED SCHEME OF THE MIND: LONDON UNIVERSITY-1850-1860.

Summer of 1850.

THE retirement from the Board of Health in March was, under the circumstances, necessarily followed by a sojourn in Edinburgh. I had, of course, to be in constant communication with the Messrs. Chambers and their literary manager, Page, as well as to keep in touch with Edinburgh friends generally. When the summer heat became oppressive, I resorted for a number of weeks to the Rothesay Hydropathic, where the bracing régime was favourable to composition, and enabled me especially to execute to satisfaction the most difficult of all the Papers I had in hand,-viz., "The Topic of Philosophy".

As I had not been in Aberdeen for four years, I took the opportunity now provided of paying a visit to the place and to my old friends. George Walker and John Duguid Milne had become brothers-inlaw, and lived in the same establishment. I was

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