In this piece Dickens seizes the opportunity both to mock political sloganeering in general and to remind his readers of particular scandals of the previous year. The Old Year's words, 'I have been a Year of Ruin...I have been a Year of Commercial Prosperity' look forward to the famous opening of A Tale of Two Cities [AYR, Vol. I, 30 April] (1859): 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times....' Turning to particularities, Dickens mocks the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers (est. 1847), which had decreed the abolition of all cesspits with the catastrophic result that London's sewage was now discharged direct into the Thames. The Commissioners were able to resist the General Board of Health's plans (drawn up by Edwin Chadwick) for a total reorganisation of London's water-supply and drainage system because the metropolis was specifically excluded from the Board's remit.
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