relating to the pavements, where you are not able to afford the
complainants effectual relief: viz., with respect to certain inhabitants
throwing refuse and offensive matters from the houses into the public
way, so that nuisance is created. I have already suggested to your Hon.
Court, and I beg leave here to repeat, that in the 41st clause of the
City Police Act, provision is made for the prevention of this particular
offence, and that your four Inspectors are manifestly unable to relieve
the Police Force of their legal responsibility in the matter.
* * * * *
5. Your powers for enforcing the wholesome _cleanliness of private
premises_ are equally considerable. You can order the removal of
offensive matter, the purification and whitewashing of premises, and the
abatement of any nuisance arising in conditions of filth. In case of
need, as shown by a medical certificate, you can summon the offender
before your Court; and (under your new Act) you can punish with a heavy
fine any repetition of the nuisance against which your order has once
been issued.
* * * * *
6. So long as _slaughter-houses_ are tolerated within the City (and it
is to be hoped this may not be long) you have power to regulate their
use, according to your discretion, with a view to their cleanliness and
better management; and in case of disobedience to your orders, you have
power to enforce the temporary suspension of slaughtering. Your new Act
renders illegal any slaughtering in cellars, or any keeping of cattle
there: and it prohibits that offensive exposure of putrescent hides,
which has so often been complained of in the vicinity of Leadenhall
Market.
* * * * *
7. In close connection with the regulation of slaughter-houses, your new
Act gives you authority in a matter hitherto quite foreign to your
jurisdiction, but where your vigilance may no doubt be exercised with
great advantage to the public health. You are authorised to _appoint
Inspectors of slaughter-houses and of meat_; and these officers are
required to inspect shops, markets, and slaughter-houses, and to seize
and destroy any meat which may appear to them unsound or unwholesome. A
further clause of very extensive application enables you to deal
generally with all cases, where _unwholesome provisions_ are exposed for
sale; and this clause is so constructed as to include and render penal
all those _fraudulent adulterations of food_ which render it detrimental
to health.
* * * * *
8. You are invested with important authority against _such trades and
occupations as are offensive or injurious_ to their neighbourhood. Under
your former Act, you can subject to penalties any person who shall
‘roast or burn, boil, distil, or otherwise decompose any root, drug, or
other article or thing, in any house or building, and thereby cause
offensive or injurious smells or vapours to be emitted therefrom, so as
to become a common nuisance;’ and the same Act also gave you a very
inoperative clause against such nuisance-causing manufactories as might
begin to work in the City after the commencement of that Act.
Your new law enacts that everything practicable shall be done for the
suppression of all nuisances arising in manufactures and the
like:--that, after the first of January next, every furnace used in the
City shall be such as to consume its own smoke; and that whatever trade
or business may occasion noxious or offensive effluvia, or otherwise
annoy the inhabitants of its neighbourhood, shall be required to employ,
to your satisfaction, the best known means for preventing or
counteracting such annoyance.
* * * * *
9. You have certain powers, to which I adverted in my former Report, as
likely to come into activity whenever the injurious practice of
intramural burial might cease; powers, namely, relating to the _disposal
of dead bodies_ in certain specified cases: and under your new Act, you
have acquired some further authority (likewise only to be exercised
after that cessation, and with the consent of the Bishop of London) to
_appropriate the disused burial-grounds_ for purposes of improvement. At
the time of my last Report I looked ‘forward to the complete
discontinuance of burial within your territory as a matter for warm
congratulation among all who are interested in the cause of sanitary
improvement;’ and it is with proportionate disappointment and regret,
that I have now to report to you that the Order in Council, which was to
have closed all metropolitan burial grounds, has never yet been issued;
and that negociations, conducted by the General Board of Health for the
purchase of a sufficient extramural cemetery, were suddenly arrested at
the close of the last session of Parliament. Your powers in relation to
these matters remain of course meanwhile inoperative.[68]
[68] In the Parliamentary Session of 1852, the Interments Act of 1850,
which had remained inoperative, was repealed under a new ‘Act to amend
the Laws concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis,’ which
became law July 1st, 1852. Under this Act, the powers, alluded to in a
later part of this volume, were given to the Commissioners of Sewers
of the City of London as a Burial Board for the City.--J. S., 1854.
* * * * *
10. The most important additions made to your power relate to the
_dwellings of the poor_, and are embodied chiefly in the tenth section
of your new Act. The definition of ‘lodging-house’ given in this clause
is so extensive, and the power of regulation conceded to you is so
unconditional (where once the necessity for your interference is shown)
that your Hon. Court can now exert your authority for every legitimate
object, in respect of all the poorer houses in the City.[69] The
definition is, that ‘the expression _common lodging-house_ shall, for
the purposes of this Act, mean any house, not being a licensed
victualling house, let, or any part of which is let, at a daily or
weekly rent not exceeding the rate of three shillings and sixpence per
week; or in which persons are harboured or lodged for hire for a single
night, or for less than a week at one time; or in which any room let for
hire is occupied by more than one family at one time.’ And your powers
are to the following effect:--Wherever over-crowding has taken place
unwholesomely or indecently--wherever undue illness has
prevailed--wherever from any one of several causes the house is unfit
for occupation, you can require its _immediate registration_; you can
then _make such rules_ as you think fit for the _maintenance of decency
and health_; and you can enforce conformity to those regulations with
appropriate penalties.
[69] Circumstances, which need not here be detailed, have led to
disappointment in the working of this clause, and have shown, to my
great regret, that I over-estimated the benefits it was capable of
conferring.--J. S., 1854.
The terms of the clause throw on your Medical Officer the responsibility
of initiating these proceedings; and his task in the matter will be one
of anxiety and arduousness. In most other clauses of your Acts of
Parliament, an alternative is allowed as to your taking the opinion ‘of
the Officer of Health, or of any two duly qualified Medical
Practitioners:’ but in this clause you are expressly restricted to the
certificate of your Officer of Health.
In my two former Reports, I have addressed you at length on those
conditions relative to the dwellings and social habits of the poor which
made the enactments of this clause indispensable; and I look forward to
its operation with a sanguine belief that it may be rendered one of the
most important boons ever conferred on the labouring classes of the
community.
I subjoin to my Report the schedule which I would suggest for the
registration of lodging-houses, and which (as you will observe) requires
detailed information as to every sanitary particular of the
dwelling.[70] I would recommend that in every case, where registration
is made, the owner’s specification of these particulars should be
accompanied by a written certificate from your Inspector; testifying
(in some such form as that annexed to the schedule in my Appendix)
first, to the accuracy of the statement, and, secondly, to the general
condition of the house.
[70] Vide page 210.
With respect to the rules, which, under authority of this clause, you
may find it requisite to lay down for better regulating the residences
of the poor,--the conditions for which you have to legislate are so
various and complicated, that no formula will apply universally; and you
will often be called on to adapt special rules to particular cases as
they come before you. I can therefore only venture at present to offer
you general suggestions on the subject.
You will find that the houses in which your interference is required
fall into three cases, characterised as follows:--(1) Where the house is
let in several independent holdings (often as many holdings as rooms)
each occupied by a single family and no more, and paid for at a rent not
exceeding 3s. 6d. _per_ week;--(2) Where the house is thus let in
several independent holdings, and where the renter of each or any
portion, admits other persons to share his holding with him, on their
payment to him of a sub-rent _per_ week or _per_ night, so that a room
comes to be occupied by more than one family at a time;--(3) Where the
entire house, or all such part as is let in lodgings is under the direct
management of a single resident proprietor or keeper, where the lodgings
are let at . . . . _per_ night, and where many persons not belonging to
one single family are lodged together in some single room, or in various
single rooms of the house.
Of the first arrangement, where a single room is the residence of a
single family, you have innumerable illustrations in the City; as, for
instance in the large houses of Windsor-street (to which I have recently
drawn your attention) where in one house there are sixteen such
holdings:--of the second arrangement--the most abominable and
brutalising which can be conceived, you have sufficient illustrations in
Plumtree-court:--of the third--comparatively little known in the City,
there are instances in Field-lane.
In respect of the first class of houses, I should be disposed to look
upon each holding as the house of its occupier, and not to interfere
within his threshold, except on the ground of some commanding necessity.
I would require only that the general arrangements of the house should
be adapted to the number of its holdings; that, for instance, numerous
families should not be left competing for the use of a single privy, but
that such accommodation should be provided in strict proportion to the
requirements of the inmates; that every room should be efficiently
ventilated; that water should be supplied to the highest occupied part
of the house, and a water-tap and sink furnished on every floor; that
the dust and refuse of the house should be removed at least once daily.
In dealing with the worst specimens of this class, it may be requisite
to go further than I have here intimated; and it appears to me that for
this purpose your Hon. Court must address your regulations not to the
tenant, but to the landlord. He, I apprehend, must be held responsible
for the decent and wholesome condition of his property, and for such
conduct of his tenants as will maintain that condition.
Seeing the punctuality with which weekly visitation is made for the
collection of rents in these wretched dwellings, it would not be
unreasonable, I think, to insist on some such regulation as the
following:--The owner of the house, or his agent, or collector, shall
visit each room on an appointed day, at least once weekly, between the
hours of eleven and three; he shall see that the floor and other
woodwork of the room have been properly washed on that day, that the
room be free from all dirt, rubbish, or offensive smell, that no
objectionable trade be pursued in it, and that it be generally in good
and proper repair; he shall see that the premises generally[71] be in a
clean and wholesome condition, that water be sufficiently supplied, and
that the dustman’s work be regularly performed; and failing either of
the two latter conditions, he shall forthwith lay complaint thereof
before your Commission; in case of any inmate suffering from cholera,
small-pox, erysipelas, or any kind of fever, the owner, or his agent or
collector, shall immediately give notice of such illness to the
Inspector of his district; and at the meeting of the Commission next
after such notice, he shall, if required, attend your Court, to receive
any order which you may issue for reducing the number of his lodgers, or
for improving the condition of his house, or for employing any
disinfectant process; and he shall fulfil any such order within the time
therein specified.
[71] Namely--passages, staircases, area, cellar, yard, privy, &c., and
if common privies and urinals exist, he shall provide for the
cleansing of these, where requisite, at least once daily.
In a proceeding so experimental as the present, I cannot assure you of
infallible means for meeting every evil contingency; but it seems to me
that a regulation having the general tendency here indicated, enforced
by moderate penalties, would work an important revolution in the economy
of dwellings affected by its operation, would render it indispensable
to the landlord of such holdings to promote cleanly and decent habits
among his tenants--even to obtain security for their good behaviour, and
it would make it difficult or impossible for persons of opposite habits
to obtain holdings under a landlord who would be virtually punishable
for their misconduct.
Such a regulation would apply, as I have said, to the lowest and
filthiest specimens of the first class of lodging-houses; for, to the
large majority of that class less stringent rules would suffice; and it
would apply most usefully to the second class of lodging-houses--those
in which the single rooms of a house are severally occupied by more than
one family. So great are the physical and moral evils attending this
indiscriminate admixture of adult persons of both sexes (as I have
submitted to you in my former reports), that I entertain no doubts of
the necessity for prohibiting it in the most absolute manner. A
regulation to the following effect would, probably, fulfil the purpose
contemplated by the law, and would disperse these loathsome heaps of
disease, destitution, and profligacy: viz.--There shall not be lodged in
a sleeping-room, at any one time, more than two persons over fourteen
years of age, if of different sexes; nor more than[72] ---- such
persons, if they be all of one sex.
[72] This number would be proportioned to the cubical contents of the
room, and its facilities for ventilation, of which mention would be
made in the registration-schedule of the house.
This order--in addition to its wholesome influence on the second class
of lodging-houses, would apply beneficially to the third class; and, in
further relation to the latter, there would probably be required various
minor regulations with respect to facilities for washing, lighting,
ventilation and the like, which admit of being fixed in detail, only as
each particular case comes under your notice, with its deficiencies
recorded in the schedule of its registration.
* * * * *
11. In addition to this power of regulating lodging-houses, a further
authority has been conceded you by the Legislature, for the _amendment
or removal of houses presenting aggravated structural faults_. Wherever
your Officer of Health may certify to you that any house or building is
permanently unwholesome and unfit for human habitation, you are
empowered to require of the owner (or, in his neglect, yourselves to
undertake) the execution of whatever works may be requisite for
rendering the house habitable with security to life.
* * * * *
Finally,--under your former Act you were authorised, and indeed
_required, to appoint Inspectors of Nuisances_, whose duties were to
consist in the following particulars:--They were to superintend and
enforce the due execution of all duties to be performed by the
scavengers; to report to your Commission all breaches of your rules and
regulations; to point out the existence of nuisances; to record whatever
complaints might arise in relation to the supply of water, or in
relation to any infraction, either of the Act, or of any of the
regulations made by you under its authority for the preservation of
order and cleanliness and for the suppression of nuisances.
Hitherto your Hon. Court has deemed it sufficient compliance with the
terms of the Act, to engraft the functions above described on the office
of your previously appointed Inspectors of Pavements; and these
Officers have endeavoured very diligently to fulfil the multifarious
obligations thus imposed on them. During the past year it has become
obvious to me that this arrangement of their duties is inconvenient, and
that the occupation of their time as Inspectors of Pavements prevents
them devoting the requisite number of hours to the other important
duties.
I need hardly add, for the information of your Hon. Court, that the
immense increase of sanitary business implied in your new Act (an
increase probably equivalent to doubling or trebling the former amount)
renders a continuance of the former arrangement still less possible than
heretofore; the important functions assigned to your Inspectors of
Nuisances will now require to be discharged, under the superintendence
of your Officer of Health, with uninterrupted assiduity and vigilance;
and I would therefore take the liberty of begging your Hon. Court to
refer this subject to the consideration of your Committee, together with
some other points relative to the administration of your new powers.[73]
[73] Two additional Inspectors came into work, under appointment of
the Commission, at Christmas, 1853. See last Annual Report.--J. S.,
1854.
* * * * *
Here, gentlemen, terminates my statement of the powers now vested in you
for the maintenance of the public health. Authority so complete for this
noble purpose has never before been delegated to any municipal body in
the country. In exercising the means of such wide beneficence, your
Hon. Court will be discharging duties of immeasurable importance to the
public welfare; and those who have the honour and responsibility of
giving you professional advice will have a task of more than ordinary
difficulty.
It is easy to foresee the numerous obstacles which interested persons
will set before you to delay the accomplishment of your great task.
Sometimes technical objections will be raised to your proceedings:
sometimes vexatious delays and evasions will occur in the fulfilment of
your injunctions.
When your orders are addressed to some owner of objectionable
property--of some property which is a constant source of nuisance, or
disease, or death; when you would force one person to refrain from
tainting the general atmosphere with results of an offensive occupation;
when you would oblige another to see that his tenantry are better housed
than cattle, and that, while he takes rent for lodging, he shall not
give fever as the equivalent;--amid these proceedings, you will be
reminded of the ‘rights of property,’ and of ‘an Englishman’s inviolable
claim to do as he will with his own.’
Permit me, gentlemen, to remind you that your law makes full recognition
of these principles, and that the cases in which sophistical appeal will
oftenest be made to them, are exactly those which are most completely
condemned by a full and fair application of the principles adverted to.
With private affairs you interfere, only when they become of public
import; with private liberty, only when it becomes a public
encroachment. The factory chimney that eclipses the light of heaven with
unbroken clouds of smoke, the melting-house that nauseates an entire
parish, the slaughter-house that forms round itself a circle of
dangerous disease--these surely are not private, but public affairs. And
how much more justly may the neighbour appeal to you against each such
nuisance, as an interference with his privacy; against the smoke, the
stink, the fever, that bursts through each inlet of his dwelling,
intrudes on him at every hour, disturbs the enjoyment and shortens the
duration of his life. And for the rights of property--they are not only
pecuniary. Life, too, is a great property; and your Act asserts its
rights. The landlord of some overthronged lodging-house complains, that
to reduce the numbers of his tenantry, to lay on water, to erect
privies, or to execute some other indispensable sanitary work, would
diminish his rental: in the spirit of your Act, it is held a sufficient
reply, that human life is at stake, and that a landlord, in his dealings
with the ignorant and indefensive poor, cannot be suffered to estimate
them at the value of cattle, to associate them in worse than bestial
habits, or let to them for hire, at however moderate a rent, the certain
occasions of suffering and death.
And indeed, gentlemen, the mere pecuniary import of life thus squandered
is not inconsiderable. The costs of medical attendance on these
superfluities of disease are heavy items of parochial expenditure: and
although much of the undue mortality is of children, and consists in the
premature extinction of life that hitherto has no market value--costing
only the tears that are shed for it; yet there likewise occur among your
preventable deaths, very many cases in which adult life is sacrificed,
with all its strength and utility; and where, besides the wasted capital
which that loss implies, there often remains for the district which has
poisoned the man an entailment of orphanage and widowhood.
Nor, again, can it be questioned, that year by year, as general
education advances, the sanitary condition of a district will be an
important element in determining the value of its property. In engaging
houses, men will not only look to rent, and to rates on rent; they will
look also to rates on life, and will doubt the cheapness of a town
residence, however small in rental, where their lease of life must be
shortened from its intended duration, and form part of an average
mortality two-thirds higher than in the suburbs. It is an instinct in
this direction, or perhaps the guidance of knowledge, that within late
years has given so much extension to suburban residence, and has carried
numbers of the wealthier inhabitants of the City to dwell so far from
their places of daily business: and the same instinct or knowledge
yearly acts more towards the less affluent classes, urging them to fly
as far as possible beyond the smoke and crowding and unwholesome vapours
of the metropolis. I entertain great hope and little doubt, that, within
a few years, the working classes will have organised for themselves
extensive means of suburban residence; that vast barracks of
model-houses, rising on healthier soil and amid purer atmosphere, will
receive hundreds of thousands of inmates from those classes of society
which now throng the courts and alleys of the metropolis; and that by
this spontaneous emigration, in so far as it may affect the City, great
assistance will be given to those endeavours which will be made, under
authority of your Act, to thin the court population of the City, and to
diminish the too dense array of houses inhabited by the poor.
As I look to the poor-rates of the City of London, as well as to the
other circumstances just adverted to, I feel the deepest conviction that
_property_, no less than _life_, is interested in the progress of
sanitary reform: and once again, most earnestly, I beg leave to
congratulate your Hon. Court on the acquisition of powers, conferring on
you the inestimable privilege of doing so much good for those whom you
represent, and for the often unrepresented poor; of relieving so much
suffering; of prolonging so much life.
That much improvement remains to be accomplished within your province,
is a certainty which I have endeavoured here, as on former occasions,
plainly to set before you.