THE TEN YEARS' STRUGGLE FOR SANITARY REFORM, 1838-1848.
It is not easy to convince a whole nation of the truth of new
principles, however closely they may in reality affect its welfare; not
easy to produce a degree of conviction that shall lead to practical,
tangible results. The early workers in the public movements, such as
that for Sanitary Reform, have first to spread such a knowledge of
existing evils as shall create a general feeling of the need for
improvement. They have to educate the public until it believes in that
need. And when the _vis inertia_ of ignorance and indifference is
overcome, they have to encounter the active opposition of those whose
interests are bound up with the old abuses, and whose property would be
affected were the evil swept away. Even when it is decided that
something must be done they have to bear a long time of waiting until it
is settled what that something is to be, for decision is not easy when
questions arise which closely affect the property of a powerful class.
From these causes arose the long delay which occurred before any
mitigation of the suffering took place, and hence it was that the great
feature of the period was a succession of "Inquiries" and of bills
brought before Parliament and defeated.
The first step in the House of Commons was made in 1840, the year
following that which has just been spoken of as the one from which dates
the public beginning of the Sanitary movement, when Mr Slaney, M.P. (one
of the most earnest and energetic of the early labourers in the cause)
obtained a Committee of the House to "inquire into the sanitary state of
large towns in England." Mr Slaney wished not only to extend the
investigation, but to bring the striking results already obtained
directly before Parliament.
My grandfather was the first witness examined by the Committee, and
nearly the whole of his evidence was transferred to its minutes. Some of
his words were--
"_These miseries will continue till the Government will pass measures
which shall remove the sources of poison and disease from these places.
All this suffering might be averted. These poor people are victims that
are sacrificed. The effect is the same as if twenty or thirty thousand
of them were annually taken out of their wretched homes and put to
death; the only difference being that they are left in them to die._"
And how long was it before any measure to stop this could be carried
through Parliament? Dating from the time when he first examined Bethnal
Green and Whitechapel, _ten years_. Not long, perhaps, in reality,
considering the difficulties in the way, but very long to one who not
only believed, but most deeply felt and realised, the truth of such
words as those quoted above.
The history of events was this. In 1841 Lord Normanby brought in a
"Drainage of Buildings Bill." It was by no means a perfect one. My
grandfather wrote of it many years afterwards in the following words:--
"Subsequent discussion and inquiry greatly improved both the principles
and the details of sanitary legislation as compared with the proposals
in this bill. Still, honour to the House of Lords who carried it with a
cordial and noble spirit through their own House and sent it down to the
Commons!"
The session, however, came to an end before any discussion could there
be held on it.
Next year, 1842, was presented Mr Edwin Chadwick's Report on the
Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain. He was
Secretary to the Poor Law Board, and this Report was, in fact, a Return
to the Bishop of London's motion of 1839. It confirmed and extended the
results of previous inquiries, and greatly helped to prepare the way for
legislation.
In 1843 Lord Normanby made a second attempt. It was again defeated. The
Administration of which he was a member was broken up before much
progress had been made with the new and improved bill which he had
introduced.
Now came another Inquiry. Sir Robert Peel's Government, soon after
coming into office, appointed a Royal Commission,[20] of which the Duke
of Buccleuch was chairman, "to inquire into the state of large towns and
populous districts." My grandfather was again the first witness
examined. Their report was presented in June 1844; but during this
session no bill bearing on sanitary subjects was even introduced.
My grandfather, however, who was brought daily face to face with the
preventible suffering, was not likely to forget it, nor to relax his
efforts. With the calm, persistent earnestness which was characteristic
of him, he worked on and on. The more defeats, the more necessity for
strenuous exertion.
Seeing the difficulty of obtaining any practical result from all the
labour that had been devoted to the improvement of the health of the
people, he now determined to try to bring together the distinguished men
who had taken an interest in the cause, and who had exerted themselves
to promote it. He hoped that, thus united, they would have more power in
spreading the information which had been acquired, and in forcing it on
the attention of the public and the Legislature; and he also thought
that a body of men acquainted with the subject would be useful in
suggesting and discussing remedies, and in proposing legislative
measures.
He succeeded in this effort. He founded the "Health of Towns
Association" already referred to, which, numbering amongst its members
Lord Normanby, Lord Ashley, Lord Morpeth, Lord Robert Grosvenor, Lord
Ebrington, Mr Slaney, M.P., and many other influential men both in and
out of Parliament, proved a highly useful instrument in carrying forward
the work of Sanitary Reform up to the time of the passing of the Public
Health Act.
[Illustration: Meeting of Health of Towns Association.]
Its first meeting was held in December 1844, and the facts which the
various speakers eloquently brought out are chiefly summed up in the
petition which, in accordance with one of the resolutions then passed,
was presented to Parliament.
Those to whom sanitary truths are familiar will have little interest in
this repetition of what they already know, except as showing what the
early sanitary work was before a public opinion had been formed. But it
is somewhat curious to look back upon a time when it was necessary to
state what now appear self-evident truths. My grandfather gives it as
the opinion of the meeting, that--
"From the neglect of sewerage, drainage, a due supply of water, air, and
light to the interior of houses, and an efficient system of house and
street cleansing, a poisonous atmosphere is engendered, particularly in
the districts occupied by the poor, which endangers the health and life
of the whole community, but which is particularly injurious to the
industrious classes.
"That it appears from indubitable evidence that the amount of deaths
attributable to these causes is, in England alone, upwards of 40,000
annually.[21]
"That the great majority of the persons who thus prematurely perish are
between the ages of twenty and forty, the period when they ought to be
most capable of labour and are heads of families; and that it appears
from official returns that in some districts nearly one-third of the
poor-rates are expended in the maintenance of destitute widows and
orphans rendered destitute by the premature death of adult males: that
the number of widows receiving out-relief was, in the year 1844, 86,000;
that these widows had dependent upon them 111,000 orphan children; and
that there were, besides, receiving relief in the Union houses, 18,000
orphan children.
"That the expense thus constantly incurred for the maintenance of the
destitute would in many cases defray the cost of putting the district
into a good sanitary condition, and thus prevent the recurrence of these
dreadful evils.
"That this poisonous atmosphere, even when not sufficient to destroy
life, undermines the strength, deteriorates the constitution, and
renders the labourer in a great degree unable to work; and that there is
every reason to believe that his healthy life and working ability is
abridged in many districts to the extent of twelve years. And lastly--
"That the moral and religious improvement of the industrious classes is
incompatible with such a degree of physical degradation as is actually
prevalent in numerous instances; and that until the dwellings of the
poor are rendered capable of affording the comforts of a home, the
earnest and best directed efforts of the schoolmaster and clergyman must
in a great degree be in vain."
In 1845 the Government Commission issued their second Report. Another
bill, founded on this and their former Report, was brought forward; but
it was so late in the year that it could not be passed that session.
Lord Lincoln, who brought it in, avowed that his principal motive was
that it might be considered during the recess. "The Health of Towns
Association" was here very useful in publishing a report (addressed in
the first instance to its own members) criticising the provisions of
this bill. My grandfather wrote this report, assisted by the notes and
suggestions of various members, and by Mr Chadwick, who, though not
connected with the Association, helped greatly on this and other
occasions.
Lord Lincoln's bill was not again introduced, and the only sign of
progress in these matters during 1846 was to be found in the criticisms
offered on that abortive measure.
It was at this juncture that it was thought well to strengthen the hands
of the Government by bringing the force of Petition to bear upon the
Legislature. It thus became important to arouse the attention of the
working classes to the subject.
My grandfather, as one move in this direction, wrote the following
address, which I give in full. It was written from his heart, and, with
all its calm, philosophical mode of expression, burns underneath with
the white heat of that earnestness which made this sanitary cause--this
saving of life and of suffering--with him almost a crusade.
AN ADDRESS TO THE WORKING CLASSES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM ON THEIR
DUTY IN THE PRESENT STATE OF THE SANITARY QUESTION.
MY FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN,
The artificial distinctions by which the people of a country are
divided into different classes have no relation to the capacities
and endowments of our common nature. No class is higher or better
than another in the sense of having more or different sentient,
intellectual, moral, and religious faculties. Every property by
which the human being is distinguished from the other creatures of
the earth is possessed alike by rich and poor. Wealth can give to
the rich man no additional powers of this kind, nor can poverty
deprive the poor man of one of them. Before these glorious gifts
with which our common nature is endowed, with which all human beings
without distinction are enriched, and which can be neither added to
nor taken away, the little distinctions of man's creation sink into
absolute insignificance.
It is the universal possession of these noble faculties by the human
race that makes the gift of human life alike a boon to all. It is
the exercise of these noble faculties on objects appropriate to
them, and worthy of them, that _makes_ life a boon. It is because
these faculties, when duly exercised and properly directed,
strengthen and enlarge with time, that the value of life increases
with its duration. In the mere possession of the full number of the
years that make up the natural term of life there is a larger and
higher boon than is apparent at first view. What the natural term of
human life may be is indeed altogether unknown; because, although
one of the characteristics by which man is distinguished from other
animals is, that he is capable of understanding the conditions of
his existence, and of exerting, within a certain limit, a control
over them, so as to be able materially to shorten or to prolong the
actual duration of his life,--yet these conditions have hitherto
been so little regarded that there is not a single example on record
of a community in which the conditions favourable to life have been
present and constant, and in which the conditions unfavourable to it
have been excluded, in as complete a degree as is obviously
practicable. History is full of instances in which the successive
generations of a people have been swept away with extraordinary
rapidity; but on no page is there to be found the notice of a single
nation, in ancient or modern times, the great mass of the population
of which has attained a higher longevity; yet it is certain that a
degree of longevity never yet witnessed has always been attainable,
because such longevity depends on conditions which are now
known--conditions entirely within human control.
I have said that there is involved in the mere length of life a
larger and higher boon than is apparent without reflection. First,
because length of life is in general a tolerably accurate measure of
the amount of health, without a good share of which life is
comparatively worthless. The instances are rare in which a person
attains to old age who has not enjoyed at least a moderate share of
daily health and vigour.
Secondly, because length of life is a perfectly accurate measure of
the amount of enjoyment. Long life is incompatible with a condition
of constant privation and wretchedness. It is one of the
beneficences of the constitution of our nature that when the balance
of happiness is against us, a limit is fixed to our misery by its
rapid termination in the insensibility of death. In the very brevity
of its existence, therefore, a human being indicates his own history
for evil; the shortness of his life is the sure and correct index of
the amount of his suffering, physical and mental: it is the result,
the sum-total, the aggregate expression, of the ills endured.
Thirdly, because length of life is the protraction of that portion
of life, and only of that portion of it, in which the human being is
capable of the greatest degree of usefulness. I have elsewhere shown
that every year by which the term of human life is extended is
really added to the period of mature age; the period when the organs
of the body have attained their full growth and put forth their full
strength; when the physical organisation has acquired its utmost
perfection; when the senses, the feelings, the emotions, the
passions, the affections are in the highest degree acute, intense,
and varied; when the intellectual faculties, completely unfolded and
developed, carry on their operations with the greatest vigour,
soundness, and continuity: in a word, when the individual is capable
of communicating, as well as of receiving, the largest amount of the
highest kind of happiness.
These considerations give peculiar interest to the results of the
inquiries recently made into the actual duration of life at the
present time in our cities, towns, and villages. From these
inquiries it appears not only that the rate of mortality in the
whole of England at the present day is deplorably high, but that
there is an extraordinary excess of mortality over and above what is
natural, supposing the term at present attainable to be the natural
term of human life. The statement of this excess presents to the
mind an appalling picture. From accurate calculations, based on the
observation of carefully recorded facts, it is rendered certain that
the annual slaughter in England alone by causes that are
preventible, by causes that produce only one disease--namely, typhus
fever--is more than double the loss sustained by the allied armies
in the battle of Waterloo; that 136 persons perish every day in
England alone whose lives might be saved; that in one single
city--namely, Manchester--thirteen thousand three hundred and
sixty-two children have perished in seven years over and above the
mortality natural to mankind.
It appears, moreover, that the field in which this annual slaughter
takes place is always and everywhere the locality in which you
reside, and that it is you and your wives and children who are the
victims. In some instances in the streets, courts, and alleys in
which you live, the mortality which afflicts you is nearly double,
and in others it is quite double, that of the inhabitants of other
streets in the same district, and in adjoining districts. While the
average age at death of the gentry and of professional persons and
their families is forty-four, the average age at death attained by
you and your families in many instances is only twenty-two, just
one-half,--that is to say, comparing your condition with that of the
professional persons, you and your families are deprived of one-half
of your natural term of life.
Though the causes by which you and your children are thus immolated
are well known; though they have been constantly proclaimed to the
public and the Government for nearly ten years past; though their
truth is universally admitted; and though it is further admitted
that the causes in question are removable,--yet not only has nothing
whatever been done to remove them, but their operation during this
very year has been far more fatal than at any period since we have
had the means of making accurate observations on the subject. Thus
we are informed by the Registrar-General, that in the summer quarter
of the present year Ten Thousand Lives have been destroyed, in a
part only of England, by causes which there is every reason to
believe may be removed; that in the succeeding quarter--namely, the
quarter ending the 30th of September--the number of deaths exceeded
the number in the corresponding quarter of last year by Fifteen
Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty-seven; that is to say, in the very
last quarter upwards of 15,000 persons perished, in a part only of
England, beyond the mortality of the corresponding quarter of last
year.
From this same report it appears, further, that in many of our large
towns and populous districts--that is, in the places in which you in
great numbers carry on your daily toil--the mortality has nearly
doubled; in some it has quite doubled, and in others it has actually
more than doubled; that this is the case among other places in
Sheffield and Birmingham; that in Sheffield, for example, the number
of deaths in the last quarter are double those in the corresponding
quarter of last year and 149 over; while in Birmingham they are
double and 239 over.
"The causes of this high mortality," says the Registrar-General,
"have been traced to crowded lodgings, dirty dwellings, personal
uncleanliness, and the concentration of unhealthy emanations from
narrow streets without fresh air, water, or sewerage."
We are further told by the Registrar-General that "the returns of
the past quarter prove that nothing effectual has been done to put a
stop to the disease, suffering, and death in which so many thousands
perish; that the improvements, chiefly of a showy, superficial,
outside character, have not reached the homes and habits of the
people; and that the consequence is that thousands, not only of the
children, but of the men and women themselves, perish of the
diseases formerly so fatal, for the same reason, in barracks, camps,
gaols, and ships."
For every one of the lives of these 15,000 persons who have thus
perished during the last quarter, and who might have been saved by
human agency, those are responsible whose proper office it is to
interfere and endeavour to stay the calamity--who have the power to
save, but who will not use it. But their apathy is an additional
reason why you should rouse yourselves, and show that you will
submit to this dreadful state of things no longer. Let a voice come
from your streets, lanes, alleys, courts, workshops, and houses that
shall startle the ear of the public and command the attention of the
Legislature. The time is auspicious for the effort; it is a case in
which it is right that you should take a part, in which you are
bound to take a part, in which your own interests and the wellbeing
of those most dear to you require you to take a part. The Government
is disposed to espouse your cause; but narrow, selfish,
short-sighted interests will be banded against you. Petition both
Houses of Parliament. Call upon the instructed and benevolent men in
the legislative body to sustain your just claim to protection and
assistance. Petition Parliament to give you sewers; petition
Parliament to secure to you constant and abundant supplies of
water--supplies adequate to the unintermitting and effectual
cleansing both of your sewers and streets; petition Parliament to
remove--for it is in the power of Parliament universally and
completely to remove--the sources of poison that surround your
dwellings, and that carry disease, suffering, and death into your
homes. Tell them of the parish of St Margaret, in Leicester, with a
population of 22,000 persons, almost all of whom are artisans, and
where the average age of death in the whole parish was during the
year 1846 only eighteen years; tell them that on taking the ages of
death in the different _streets_ in this parish, it was found that
in those streets that were drained (and there was not a single
street in the place properly drained) the average age of death was
twenty-three and a-half years; that in the streets that were
partially drained it was seventeen and a-half years; while in the
streets that were entirely undrained it was only thirteen and a-half
years.
You cannot disclose to them the suffering you have endured on your
beds of sickness, and by which your wives and children have been
hurried to their early graves--there is no column in the tables of
the Registrar-General which can show that; but you can tell them
that you know, and you can remind them that they admit, that by
proper sanitary regulations the same duration of life may be
extended to you and your families that is at present enjoyed by
professional persons, and that it is possible to obtain for the
whole of a town population at least such an average duration of life
as is already experienced in some parts of it. In your workshops, in
your clubs, in your institutes, obtain signatures to your petitions:
get every labourer, every artisan, every tradesman whom you can
influence, to sign petitions. Other things must also be done before
your condition can be rendered prosperous; but this must precede
every real improvement: the sources of the poison that infects the
atmosphere you breathe must be dried up before you can be healthy,
and uncleanliness must be removed from the exterior of your
dwellings before you can find or make a Home.--I am your friend and
servant,
SOUTHWOOD SMITH.
_1st January 1847._
In this same year 1847 a Royal Commission--"Metropolitan Sanitary
Commission" (of which my grandfather was a member)--was appointed to
inquire "whether any, and what, sanitary measures were required for
London."
To the country at large, however, it seemed as if perhaps there had been
enough "inquiring." The thing _had_ been considered. Surely something
might be _done_; and Lord Morpeth now brought forward a Government
measure for "improving the health of towns in England."
In bringing in the bill, Lord Morpeth first gives a history of the
principal stages of the various inquiries and commissions which had been
helped on by all parties, and by successive Governments. He states that
he has nothing new to bring forward, and can but repeat the information
gained by others. He goes on to show by elaborate statistics the waste
of life in large towns.
"Thus the inhabitants of London," he sums up, "compared with England at
large, lose eight years of their lives, of Liverpool nineteen. The
population of the large towns in England being 4,000,000, the annual
loss is between 21,000 and 22,000."[22]
But all places are not equally unhealthy, as further statistics
strikingly show. Where do we find the greatest number of deaths? Is it
where wages are lowest and the people poorest? What did Lord Morpeth
tell the House?
"Let it not be said," he urges, "that the greater rate of mortality in
certain districts is owing to extreme poverty and the want of the
necessaries of life. The condition of the labourers of the west, the
lowness of their wages and the consequent scantiness of their food and
clothing, have been the subject of public animadversion. The mortality
of the south-western district, which includes Cornwall, Devon, Somerset,
Dorset, and Wilts, is only 1 in 52--not 2 per cent; while that of the
north-western, including Cheshire and Lancashire, is 1 in 37. With the
exception of the Cornish miners the condition of labourers throughout
the western counties is nearly the same, yet in Wiltshire, the county of
lowest wages, the deaths are 1 in 49, in Lancashire 1 in 36. The average
age at death in Wiltshire was thirty-five, in Lancashire twenty-two. The
Wiltshire labourer's average age was thirty-five, that of the Liverpool
operative fifteen. At Manchester, in 1836, the average consumption per
head of the population was 105 lb. of butcher's meat--about 2 lb. a-week
(exclusive of bacon, pork, fish, and poultry); the average age at death
was twenty years." He then brings forward evidence of the
preventibleness of most of the premature deaths.
Having proved the extent of the evil, Lord Morpeth proceeded to show how
it was proposed to meet it,--by what machinery of central board,
inspectors, &c; and, lastly, he entered into the money-saving that would
be effected were thorough sanitary measures carried out. He cites Dr
Playfair's estimates, which give the money loss, through unnecessary
sickness and death, at £11,000,000 for England and Wales, and at
£20,000,000 for the United Kingdom. This loss arises from many causes:
the expenses of direct attendance on the sick; the loss of what they
would have earned; the loss caused by the premature death of productive
contributors to the national wealth; and the expenses of premature
funerals.
But the measure which was framed to relieve this sum of misery, though
well and carefully prepared, was again to be thrown out!
It was weary work. The years were passing away, and nothing was being
done. My grandfather used to come home saddened by each new defeat. He
was sad at the delay, but he was not disheartened; he knew that the
thing would be done in time, and that the progress must be slow. He
could wait calmly in that belief and enjoy fully the beauty of the
sunset light during the summer evenings passed in our beautiful field,
overlooking the green slopes and large trees of Caen Wood, Highgate.
There our friends used to come to us, amongst others Professor Owen,
Robert Browning, William and Mary Howitt, and Hans Christian Andersen;
and we spent evenings that I can never forget, staying out constantly
till the moon rose or the stars came out. How he loved nature and all
happy things!
His faith did not err. The work of urging had not been in vain; the
movement could not be stopped; the time was ripe.
The bill had been thrown out in 1847, but in 1848 the first sanitary
law, the Public Health Act, passed!
Footnote 20:
"The Health of Towns Commission."
Footnote 21:
The statements as to the saving of life which would be effected if
proper sanitary measures were carried out were necessarily various,
since the difference which could be made in the death-rate was a
matter of opinion, and had yet to be proved by experiment. If, instead
of one death annually in every 46 inhabitants throughout England and
Wales (the then proportion), there should be an improvement sufficient
to secure there being one death in every 50, upwards of 25,000 lives
would be saved. Whilst, if the sanitary state of towns could be raised
to that of healthy counties, there would be a saving of 49,000 lives.
The Association seems to have chosen something between the least
probable and the highest probable saving of life.--G. L.
Footnote 22:
Lord Morpeth speaks here of the saving of life in large towns only.