Genre:

Announcement, Spoof

Subjects:

Public Health, Sanitation, Pollution, Disease, Commerce

    A 'Humble Petition of the Metropolitan Water Companies' to Parliament that makes cynical digs at the profits made from consumers by the water companies, and upholds the shortcomings of such companies as virtues. For example, it urges 'That your Petitioners have supplied Water of a very superior quality; viz. Thames water, of a much more nutritious character than any soft water' owing to its enrichment by 'a large percentage of animal matter'. Other items on the petition are attacks on the refusal of metropolitan water companies to supply soft water constantly and at high pressure.