THE scavenging of the streets of the metropolis is performed or by the authorities of the several parishes "without the City," who have the power to levy rates for the cleansing of the various districts; within the City, however, the office is executed under the direction of the Court of Sewers.

When the cleansing of the streets is performed indirectly by either the parochial or civic authorities, it is effected by contractors, that is to say, by traders who undertake for a certain sum to remove the street-refuse at stated intervals and under express conditions, and who employ paid servants to execute the work for them. When it is performed , the authorities employ labourers, generally from the workhouse, and usually enter into an agreement with some contractor for the use of his carts and appliances, together with the right to deposit in his wharf or yard the refuse removed from the streets.

I shall treat of the mode of scavenging—that is to say, of cleansing the streets by contract—beginning with the contractors, setting forth, as near as possible, the receipts and expenditure in connection with the trade, and then proceeding in due order to treat of the labourers employed by them in the performance of the task.

Some of the contractors agree with the parochial

There is no established or legally required of agreement between a contractor and his principals; it is a bargain in which each side strives to get the best of it, but in which the parish representatives have often to contend against something looking like a monopoly; a very common occurrence in our day when capitalists choose to combine, which legal, or unnoticed, but very heinous on the part of the working men, whose capital is only in their strength or skill. contractor, on being questioned by a gentleman officially connected with a large district, as to the existence of combination, laughed at such a notion, but said there might be "a sort of understanding among another," as among people who "must look to their own interests, and see which way the cat jumped;" concluding with the undeniable assertion that "no man ought reasonably to be expected to ruin himself for a parish."

There does not appear, however, to have been any countervailing qualities on the part of the parishes to this understanding among the contractors; for some of the authorities have found themselves, when a new or a renewed contract was in question, suddenly "on the other side of the hedge." Thus, in the south-west district of , the contractor, or years ago, paid per annum for the removal and possession of the street-dirt, &c.; but the following year the district authorities had to pay him for the same labour and with the same privileges! Other changes took place, and in - a contractor again paid the district I have shown, too, that in the dust-contractor now per annum, whereas he formerly To prove, however, that a spirit of combination does exist among these contractors, I may cite the following minute from of the parish books.

Commissioner's Office, , , .

REPORT of the Paving Committee to the General Board, relating to the watering the district for the past year. our Committee beg leave to report that for the past years the sums paid by contract for watering were respectively:—

That in the month of February in the present year the Board advertised in the usual manner for tenders to water the distriot, when the following were received, viz.:—

Your Committee, anxious to prevent any increase in the watering-rate from being levied, and considering the amount required by the contractors for this service as excessive and exorbitant, and even evincing a spirit of combination, resolved to make an inroad upon this system, and after much trouble and attention adopted other measures for watering the district, the results of which they have great pleasure in presenting to the Board, by which it will be seen that a saving over the very lowest of the above tenders of has been effected; the sum of has been paid for pauper labour at the same time. Your Committee regret that, notwithstanding the efforts of themselves and their officers, the state of insubordination and insult of most of the paupers (in spite of all encouragement to industry) was such, that the Committee, on the last, were reluctantly compelled to discontinue their services. The Committee cannot but congratulate the Board upon the result of their experiment, which will have the effect of breaking up a spirit of combination highly dangerous to the community at large, at the same time that their labours have caused a very considerable saving to the ratepayers; and they trust the work, considering all the numerous disadvantages under which they have laboured, has been performed in a satisfactory manner.

The following regulations sufficiently show the nature of the agreements made between the contractors and the authorities as to the cleansing of the more important thoroughfares especially. It will be seen that in the regulations I quote every street, court, or alley, must now be swept , a practice which has only been adopted within these few years in the City.

SEWERS' OFFICE, , LONDON, RAKERS' DUTIES, MIDSUMMER, , TO MIDSUMMER,

[] The reader will remember that in the historical sketch given of the progress of public scavengery, the word "Rakers" occurred in connection with the sworn master scavengers, &c., &c.; the word is now unknown to the trade, except that it appears on city documents.