Whether it was done as an act of kindness to the tenants, as a compensation for the loss of the public watering places which existed on several parts of this estate, or to increase the value of the estate matters little to our purpose: but we cannot suppose that a public Company would have consented to this clause without some adequate consideration; and even if the value of this consideration is no longer felt, which I believe is not the case, {90} that is no reason why their obligation should not remain. To have had a tall chimney, with all its consequences, as well as some acres of reservoirs filled with water, standing for years in the centre of the parish, could have been no improvement to the surrounding property, though the convenience to the company must have been very great; and if any injustice is to be discovered in this clause, I think it must be found in confirming the benefit to a portion of the parish only. But if the Company at that time had seen any injustice in this arrangement, it could and most probably would soon have been altered, for “the aid and authority of Parliament,” was required in 1812, the very year after the passing of this Water Company’s Act, to make “valid, binding, and conclusive,” certain articles of agreement, dated the twenty-fourth of March, which were entered into between John, then Bishop of London, and his lessees, and the company of proprietors of the Grand Junction Canal; which agreement, amongst other things, was entered into, to enable the latter to lease to the Grand Junction Water Works Company, the requisite quantity of land for the completion of their works. {91} After fifteen years, in the seventh of Geo. IV, cap. 140, the same clause is again to be found; and in the seventh and eighth of Victoria, cap. 30, this agreement for supplying cheap water to the tenants of the Paddington estate is again ratified and confirmed; so that the subject has been well considered and ought to be fully enforced by a co-operation of the tenants. By the fifty-second Geo. III, cap. 192, the Act just referred to, anno 1812, the said articles of agreement are “absolutely ratified, confirmed, and established,” by which thirty-six acres, three and a-half perches of land are demised to the end of the term for which the land previously leased to this Company was let, renewable for a further term of ninety-nine years, every fifty years, on the tender of a fine of twenty shillings, at a rent commencing at £427 3_s._ in 1812, and advancing year by year to 1818, when the annual rent was fixed at £570 3_s._; one-third part of which was to be paid to the Bishop of London for the time being, the other two-thirds to his lessees.