and Siabod, and Snowdon itself, carried across the Conway river to
feed the mining districts of North Wales, where the streams are
now all foul with oil and lead; and then on into the western coal
and iron fields, to Wolverhampton and Birmingham itself: and if I
were the engineer who got that done, I should be happier--prouder
I dare not say--than if I had painted nobler pictures than
Raffaelle, or written nobler plays than Shakespeare. I say that,
boy, in most deliberate earnest. But meanwhile, do you not see
that in districts where coal and iron may be found, and fresh
manufactures may spring up any day in any place, each district has
a right to claim the nearest rainfall for itself? And now, when
we have got the water into its proper place, let us see what we
shall do with it."

"But why do you say 'we'? Can you and I do all this?"

"My boy, are not you and I free citizens; part of the people, the
Commons--as the good old word runs--of this country? And are we
not--or ought we not to be in time--beside that, educated men? By
the people, remember, I mean, not only the hand-working man who
has just got a vote; I mean the clergy of all denominations; and
the gentlemen of the press; and last, but not least, the
scientific men. If those four classes together were to tell every
government--'Free water we will have, and as much as we reasonably
choose;' and tell every candidate for the House of Commons:
'Unless you promise to get us as much free water as we reasonably
choose, we will not return you to Parliament:' then, I think, we
four should put such a 'pressure' on Government as no water
companies, or other vested interests, could long resist. And if
any of those four classes should hang back, and waste their time