Salus populi suprema lex. : Royal address of Cadwallader ap-Tudor ap-Edwards ap-Vaughan, Water-King of Southwark ...

London : Published by S. Knight, Sweeting's Alley, [1832?]

1 sheet (1 unnumbered page) : 1 engraving ; 51 x 33 cm

wove paper

"An attack on the Southwark Water Works, owned by John Edwards, Esq. A metal hemisphere, presumably a dolphin, cf. BM Satires No. 15375, inscribed 'Source of the Southwark Water Works', rises above the inky waters of the Thames, surrounded by clotted debris sucked against, but too bulky to enter, its large holes. On this, enthroned on a close-stool, is Edwards, as an ancient Welsh chieftain, crowned with a chamber-pot. He looks towards the crowded Southwark side of the river, triumphantly holding up a goblet overflowing with filthy water; in his right hand is a trident, on each prong a drowned animal is spiked (a rat and two cats). His words to 'My People of Southwark!' are in verse. The waterside is thronged with dwellers in Southwark who shout their complaints: 'Give us Clean Water!' [thrice]; 'Give us pure water!'; 'We shall all have the Cholera'. Others, not personally concerned, are not denizens of Southwark: 'What torrents of filth come from that Walbrook Sewer!!'; 'Sewer! why there are 130 such!'; 'Oh! never mind any nastiness goes down here in the Borough!'; 'What do they drink that!' Standing in a tethered boat are a Quaker, who exclaims '"Tell it not in Gath"', and a Paul Pry, peering through spectacles at Edwards, and exclaiming 'Prodigious!' Black torrents gush into the river from sewers on both banks. On the north shore two men stand on Walbrook wharf; behind them is '3 Cranes Wharf'. One points to the water, saying to his astonished companion, 'March of Cleanliness!!' Three burly women stand knee-deep in the river: they say 'Devilish thick!'; 'Yes, here I stick'; and 'It makes me Sick'. Chimneys pour out industrial smoke on both sides of the water: the blackest comes from a tall chimney placarded 'Southwark Water Works', close to 'Horse Shoe Alley'. Behind Blackfriars Bridge are the masts of ships in the Pool, and through its arches is seen the new London Bridge, still with scaffolding (see BM Satires No. 16733). Above the design: 'Time Mid-day. Tide, Low Water at London Bridge'. Below: 'Hail long-expected days That Thames's glory to the stars shall raise! Pope' ["Windsor Forest"] The seventh, eight, and ninth of eleven verses : The dolts of the City conceive it a virtue, To transfer from their dwellings all things that are dirty, To the great Common Sewers -- a hundred and thirty,- And plump in my Wet the muck souses; And should they be touched with the Sunderland gripes [see BM Satires No. 16922], The balmy effects of their stomachs and tripes Are infallibly destined to roll through the pipes By which I replenish your houses. Then why with alarm do you tremble and gape, Since should you not wholly the 'Morbus' escape, You'll have it, no doubt, in a modified shape If thus 'second-hand' you can catch it; And some lucky night there may come a great fire, Which, in cases of pest, is a grand purifier: You need have no fear it too soon should expire, Without water sufficient to match it. King William and I are of different opinions: I oppose all Reform within both our dominions, And should the Bill pass, I shall weep without onions, And loathe even leeks in my sorrow. Then let not Reform, though she daily grows stronger, Decree that no borough shall rot any longer; Still buy putrefaction of me, the old monger, And there yet shall be one Rotten Borough."--British Museum online catalogue.

Royal address of Cadwallader ap-Tudor ap-Edwards ap-Vaughan, Water-King of Southwark ...

English

December 03, 2020