DRAINAGE OF THE NORTH LEVEL. 107 
THE NENE OUTFALL. 
Having acted as joint engineer with Sir John Rennie in conducting 
the execution of the Nene Outfall, and singly as the chief engineer in 
advising and executing the new drainage of the North Level, I must 
beg leave to give some account of the origin and progress of those works. 
In the incongruous establishment for the management of the Bedford 
Level, jealousies, contention and confusion have been perpetually in 
action. It will be recollected that in the year 1697 the great level of 
the fens was partitioned by Vermuyden into the North, Middle and 
South Levels; an injudicious distinction, from the unavoidable connexion 
of the water-courses and banks of the several levels, and the opposition 
of interests thus created. 
The North Level contains all that part of the Great Bedford Level 
which is situated between the north side of Morton’s Leam and the south 
side of the river Welland. In the year 1728 the debt of the whole 
Level was £.17,150; and in 1753 the Middle and South Levels were 
indebted to the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lincoln £.18,000. 
Under the sanction of the Duke, the first North Level Act was obtained, 
the debts due to these noblemen were liberally cancelled, and the several 
accounts between the Levels and their creditors mutually adjusted ; and 
to prevent the like difficulty from again occurring, it was provided that 
the lands of the North Level should be completely discharged from the 
payment of the residue of the debt owing in 1728, and from a debt of 
£.13,000, contracted since that time, as well as from all other debts due 
by the Corporation for works in the North Level, and that it should not 
be thereafter liable to the payment of any debts contracted by the 
Middle or South Levels, nor those levels be subject to debts contracted 
by the North Level proprietors ; and a separate body of commissioners 
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