By the sluice provision,
again, the water could at any time be discharged, even before it
reached nearly so high a point. Unfortunately, this part of the work
was in an inefficient state, the embankment having itself sunk below
the level of the open-mouthed top of the tower, while the sluice below
was blocked up with rubbish. It was subsequently declared by the
manager, that this defect might have been remedied at any time by an
expenditure of L.12, 10s.! If the commission could not or would not
advance this small sum, one would have thought that the mill-owners
might have seen the propriety of clubbing for so cheap a purchase of
safety. They failed to do so, and the destruction of property to the
extent of half a million, the interruption of the employment of 7000
people, and the loss of 100 lives, has been the consequence. Surely
there never was a more striking illustration of the Old Richard
proverb: 'For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the
horse was lost,' &c.
The night between the 4th and 5th of February was one of calm
moonlight; but heavy rains had fallen for a fortnight before, and an
uncommon mass of water had been accumulated behind the Bilberry
embankment. The vague apprehensions of bypast years reviving at this
crisis, some neighbours had been on the outlook for a catastrophe.
They gathered at midnight round the spot, speculating on what would be
the consequence if that huge embankment should burst.
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