London vestries and their sanitary work : are they willing and able to do it? and may they be trusted in the face of a severe epidemic? being a speech delivered August 8th, 1865, at a meeting of the vestry of St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark / by W. Rendle.

  • Rendle, William, 1811-1893
Date:
1865
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: London vestries and their sanitary work : are they willing and able to do it? and may they be trusted in the face of a severe epidemic? being a speech delivered August 8th, 1865, at a meeting of the vestry of St. George-the-Martyr, Southwark / by W. Rendle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    have had 400 deaths from fever; in the two last cholera epidemics 1600 from cholera or diarrhoea. But in whatever locality fever lurks, it points to nearly the same causes which we shall have to in¬ vestigate. In times past I may personally have felt hurt at the treatment I have received; but that is all past. I have now not the least animus against any, and I will work with any who will work with me for a heartv improvement in our unwholesome dis- tricts. I only endeavour with what light I have to point out facts, and to draw from them principles for a better action. It may suit the opponents of sanitary action, to connect this with some supposed personal prejudices. I have, in common with others, I hope, a pre¬ judice against dirt harboured in and about houses; I would have money spent and the law put in force, to abate this in a reasonable but effectual manner. I have a dislike to impure water and filthy water-butts for others as well as for myself; and a further dislike to no water supply at all; and you must permit me to tell you where such defects are, without calling my sincerity in question; and you must permit me to tell you this openly and not privately, for the evil is too wide-spread—too great for our small peddling agency to amend it. If all that I advocate is in itself good, I cannot intend much harm to any one. If it is not good, why does not some one enter the lists and prove it so, instead of calumniating me? Abusing me will not find water, or make it sweet where it is foul. I dislike overcrowding; but I would not, as my calumniators say, turn swarms of people into the street, knowing, as I do, that there is a scarcity of homes for the poor. I would empty and cleanse only a danger¬ ous house like this 75, Webber Kow, and do it quickly, so as to let the landlord have his rent and the people their home again. I would not allow people to breed pestilence, if I could help it; and f would nip it in the bud if L could find it. The duty of the higher to the lower people has been too long ignored, and all man¬ ner of contrivances, especially under the Boor Law, and in most parish managements, have been discovered and practised to shift oil' the responsibilities of the poor altogether or on to others. So much has this spirit grown up in us that it now to many seems strangely unnatural to bo called upon to think for or to act much on behalf of poor, ignorant, and bad people. Not long since all London was startled at the immense liberality of a great merchant, who gave,