Volume 1

Second report.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the State of Large Towns.
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/518 (page 10)
    ledge of the evils existing, or of the means necessary for their removal, and they are in general extremely defective, and in many instances are even inadequate to effect the purposes con- templated in their provisions. Having stated the causes to which our investigations into the condition of the inhabitants of Large Towns and Popu- lous Districts have led us to ascribe much of the prevalent disease and mortality, we proceed, in obedience to the instruc- tions contained in your Majesty’s Commission, to offer recom- mendations for the amendment of the laws at present in force relating to the sanatory condition of your Majesty’s subjects. This part of our duty has been one of great difficulty, and has imposed great responsibility. Duly sensible of this, we have exercised the greatest caution and the most anxious at- tention which the magnitude of the subject, the importance of the provisions, and the intricacy of some of the details have demanded from us. Before we could arrive at any satisfactory conclusion as to the amendment requisite in the existing laws relating to the public health, we found it necessary to institute an examina- tion into the general provisions of the numerous local Acts now in operation. The absence of any general law contain- ing such provisions as are essentially necessary for the main- tenance of the public health in large towns and populous dis- tricts, and the want of uniformity in the legal principles gene- rally embodied in local Acts, has greatly extended this branch of our inquiry. The local Acts having generally been obtained at the instance of persons who possessed, in common with others, but limited information on the subject besides their legal defects, do not contain those provisions for the execution and adaptation of different works, which this and former in- quiries have shown to be essential for the successful applica- tion and combination of sanatory improvements. The connexion of the house and main-drains, and the de pendence on a good supply of water for their efficient action appear to be necessary parts of an efficient measure, and in ’ volve, with many details, an inquiry into the general system of supplying water, and of combining it with the other duties usually intrusted to Commissioners under local Acts. We have given due weight to the consideration that it must be a work of time to complete the extensive amelioration of the population of large towns, which the neglect of former