Well, what of that ! does it not belong to the system which Eternal Wisdom has inflicted on the world 1 that the greatest blessings can only be procured at the greatest cost and sacrifices ?

What is this water to do for us 1 It is to protect our city from the awful conflagrations to which it was subject. We now pay in premiums one million of dollars annually to insure about half the value of our buildings, goods, and chattels, for we are our own

underwriters to the extent of one million more of premiums here are two millions in

premiums paid, or risks incurred. If the Croton works give but half security, you save

more than will pay the whole interest of the cost. Reflect, gentlemen, on the amount of property consumed in the city, and then consider if we cannot aiford to give twelve millions for security. In two days of December, 1835, our citizens had consumed by fire

twenty millions of dollars, principally in warehouses and merchandise. If the twenty millions of property destroyed had consisted of dwelling houses, it would have turned 100,000 of our citizens into the streets. I do not state an impossible case. I state an event highly probable to have happened ;

for London a city built of less wooden materials had at one fire, in 1666, 13,000 houses burnt, which occupied 436 acres, and embraced 400 streets, 86 churches, and a variety of magnificent buildings. The destruction amounted in value to fifty millions of dollars. The extensive fire at Hamburg during the past year, and the constant occurrence of fires throughout our country, show the danger we were in.