all that sort of thing upon principle. Principle, sacred principle, he would say, should always and everywhere prevail, no matter at what cost, negative or positive. Some years later, as the venerable City member drew near his end, not without self-satisfaction at having done his duty, particularly in his unremitting efforts to stem the noxious disturbance of so-called modern progress, a friend brought him word of the great apparent success, in spite of all his forebodings, of the grand London Sanitation Scheme. But Sir Peter could only turn his head to the wall, and groan out, with his expiring breath, "Nothing but principle!"
In giving some particulars of this great work, let me first touch upon its financial method. Of course the main supporting pillar of the whole project was the expectation that time only was needed to recoup all cost, through the natural advance of value in the city's real estate—"the unearned increment of value," as it used to be called. The Government and the country had at length satisfied themselves of the solid reality of this prospect, and the final result did not at all belie their full expectation. A competent Commission, or Trust, having been appointed with full powers to act wherever and whenever required, and with due exhortation to lose no more valuable time, the business was at once entered upon.
One of the earliest incidents of the case, after the public announcement, and one that was hardly expected by those who looked mostly to costs and
