ABSTRACT
IN November 1847 Chadwick's posItIOn as the real leader of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers appeared impregnable. This new body, replacing six separate Commissions, had jurisdiction, with the exception of the City of London, over the whole Metropolis. Six or seven hundred former Commissioners were replaced by a small body of twenty-three, who, with few exceptions, were nominated by Chadwick. First there came a group of six names already familiar, viz., Lord Ebrington, Joseph Hume, R. A. Slaney, Neil Arnott, Southwood Smith, and Professor Richard Owen. There followed a miscellaneous group, also hand-picked. It included Sir James Clark, the Queen's physician, because he had written on ' Climate', and Sir Henry de la Beche, the director of the ordnance survey. There were two ecclesiastics, the Reverend W. Stone and the Dean of Westminster, the latter being selected because he was impressed by Chadwick's new drainage at Westminster School. Two philanthropists, Sir Edward Buxton and John Bullar, were also nominated, -as well as the young John Walter III, the new proprietor of The Times-this last a choice that proved disastrous. 1 A third group was in fact the embryonic General Board of Health, viz. Ashley, Chadwick, and Morpeth. Altogether there were not more than five persons on whom Chadwick could not rely for consistent support. In addition, public opinion strongly approved this compliant ' machine'. But within eighteen months these supreme advantages were frittered away.
