Who, indeed, after pulling off the coloured glasses of preju- dice, and thrusting out of sight his pet projects, can help seeing the folly of these endeavours to protect men against themselves? A sad population of imbeciles would our schemers fill the world with, could their plans last. A sorry kind of human constitution would they make for us — a constitution lacking the power to uphold itself, and requiring to be kept alive by superintendence from without — a constitution continually going wrong, and need- ing to be set right again — a constitution even tending to self- destruction. Why the whole effort of nature is to get rid of such^^— to clear the world of them, and make room for better. Nature demands that every being shall be self-sufficing. All that are not so, nature is perpetually withdrawing by death. Intelligence sufficient to avoid danger, power enough to fulfil every condition, ability to cope with the necessities of existence — these are qualifications invariably insisted on. Mark how the diseased are dealt with. Consumptive patients, with lungs incompetent to perform the duties of lungs, people ^Yith assi- milative organs that will not take up enough nutriment, people with defective hearts that break down under excitement of the circulation, people with any constitutional flaw preventing the due fulfilment of the conditions of life, are continually dying out, and leaving behind those fit for the cUmate, food, and habits to which they are born. Even the less-imperfectly or- ganized, who, under ordinary circumstances, can manage to live with comfortj ai-e still the first to be carried off by epidemics; 380 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
and only such as are robust euougli to resist these — that is, only such as are tolerably well adapted to both the usual and incidental necessities of existence, remain. And thus is the race kept free from vitiation. Of course this statement is in substance a truism; for no other arrangement of things is con- ceivable. But it is a truism to which most men pay little re- gard. And if they commonly overlook its application to body, still less do they note its bearing upon mind. Yet it is equally true here. Nature just as much insists on fitness between men- tal character and circumstances, as between physical character and circumstances; and radical defects are as much causes of death in the one case as in the other. He on whom his own stupidity, or vice, or idleness, entails loss of Hfe, must, in the generalizations of philosophy, be classed ■with the victims of weak viscera or malformed limbs. In his case, as in the others, there exists a fatal non-adaptation; and it matters not in the abstract whether it be a moral, an intellectual, or a corporeal one. Beings thus imperfect are nature's failures, and are re- called by her laws when foiind to be such. Along with the rest they are put upon trial. If they are sufficiently complete to Hve, they do Hve, and it is well they should live. If they ard not sufficiently complete to Hve, they die, and it is best they should die. Whether the incompleteness be in strength, or agUity, or perception, or foresight, or self-control, is not heeded in the rigorous proof they ai'e put to. But if any faculty is unusually deficient, the probabilities are that, in the long run, some dis- astrous, or, in the worst cases — fatal result will follow. And, however irregular the action of this law may appear — however it may seem that much chaff is left behind wliich should be winnowed out, and that much grain is taken away which should be left behind, yet due consideration must satisfy every one that the average effect is to purify society from those who are, in some respect or other, essentially faulty.
Of course, in so far as the severity of this process is mitigated by the spontaneous s}'mpathy of men for each other, it is proper tliat it should be mitigated: albeit there is unquestionably harm SANITARY SUPERVISION". 381 done when sympathy is shown, without any regard to ultimate results. But the drawhacks hence arising are nothing like com- mensurate with the benefits othenvise conferred. Only when this sympathy prompts to a breach of equity — only when it originates an interference forbidden by the law of equal freedom — only when, by so doing, it suspends in some particular depart- ment of life the relationship between constitution and conditions, does it work pure evil. Then, however, it defeats its own end. Instead of diminishing suffering, it eventually increases it. It favours the multiplication of those worst fitted for existence, and, by consequence, hinders the multiplication of those best fitted for existence — leaving, as it does, less room for them. It tends to fill the world with those to whom Ufe will bring most pain, and tends to keep out of it those to whom life will bring most pleasure. It inflicts positive misery, and prevents positive happiness.
Turning now to consider these impatiently-agitated schemes for improving' our sanitary condition by act of parliament, the first criticism to be passed upon them is that they are altogether needless, inasmuch as there are already efficient influences at work gradually accomplishing every desideratum.
Seeing, as do the philanthropic of our day, like the con- genitally blind to whom sight has just been given — looking at things through the newly-opened eyes of sympathy — they form very crude and very exaggerated notions of the evils to be dealt with. Some, anxious for the enlightenment of their fellows, collect statistics exhibiting a lamentable amount of ignorance; publish these; and the lovers of their kind are startled. Others dive into the dens where poverty hides itself, and shock the world with descriptions of what they see. Others, again, gather to- gether information respecting crime, and make the benevolent look grave by their disclosures. Whereupon, in their horror at these revelations, men keep thoughtlessly assuming that the evils have lately become greater, when in reality it is they who 382 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
have become more observant of them. If few comphiints have hitherto been heard about crime, and ignorance, and misery, it is not that in times past these were less widely spread; for the contrary is the fact; but it is, that our forefathers were comparatively indifferent to them— thought Little about them, and said little about them. Overlooking which circumstance, and forgetting that social evils have been undergoing a gradual amelioration — an amelioration likely to progress \\-ith increas- ing rapidity — manv entertain a needless alarm lest fearful con- sequences should ensue, if these evils are not immediately re- medied, and a visionary hope that immediate remedy of them is possible.
Such are the now prevalent feehngs relative to sanitary reform. We have had a multitude of blue-books. Board of Health reports, leading articles, pamphlets, and lectures, descriptive of bad drainage, ovei-flowing cesspools, festeiing graveyards, impure water, and the filthiness and humidity of low lodging houses. The facts thus published are thought to warrant, or rather to demand, legislative interference. It seems never to be asked, whether any corrective process is going on. Although evei7 one knows that the rate of mortaUty has been gradually de- creasing, and that the value of Life is higher in England than elsewhere — although every one knows that the cleanliness of our towns is greater now than ever before, and that our spon- taneously-grown sanitary arrangements are far better than those existing on the Continent, where the stinks of Cologne, the uncovered drains of Paris, the water-tubs of Berhn^, and the miserable footways of the German towns, show what state- management effects — although every one knows these things, yet is it perversely assumed that by state-management only can the remaining impediments to public health be removed. Surely the causes which have brought the sewage, the paving and Ughting, and the water-supply of our towns, to their present state, have not suddenly ceased. Surely that amelioration, " For putiing out fires in Berlin they depend on open tubs of water that stand about the city at certain points, ready to be dragged where they are wanted.
SANITARY SUPERVISION. 383 Avhich has been taking place in tbe condition of London for these two or three centuries, may be expected to continue. Surely the public spirit, which has carried out so many urban improvements since the Municipal Corporations Act gave greater facilities, can carry out other improvements. "Surely, if all that has been done towEirds making cities healthy, has been done, not only without government aid, but in spite of government obstructions — in spite, that is, of the heavy ex- pense of local acts of parliament — we may reasonably suppose, that what remains to be done can be done in the same way, especially if the obstructions are removed. One would have thought that less excuse for meddKng existed now than ever. Now that so much has been effected; now that spontaneous advance is being made at an unparalleled rate; now that the laws of health are beginning to be generally studied; now that people are reforming their habits of living; now that the use of baths is spreading; now that temperance, and ventilation, and due exercise are getting thought about — to interfere now, of all times, is surely as rash and uncalled-for a step as was ever taken.
And then to think that, in their hot haste to obtain by law healthier homes for the masses, men should not see that the natural process already commenced is the only process which can eventually succeed. The Metropolitan Association for Im- proving the Dwellings of the Labouring Classes is doing all that is possible in the matter. It is endeavouring to show that, under judicious management, the building of salubrious habita- tions for the poor becomes a profitable employment of capital. If it shows this, it wUl do all that needs to be done; for capital will quickly flow into investments offering good returns. If it does not show this — if, after due trial, it finds that these Model Lodging Houses do not pay, £tnd that better accommodation than the working people now have can be obtained for them only by diminishing the interest on money sunk in building, then not all tlie acts of parHament that can be passed between now and doomsday will improve matters one jot. These plans 384 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
for making good ventilation imperative; insisting upon water- supply, and fixing the price for it, as Lord Morpeth's Bill would have done; having empty houses cleansed before re-occupation, and charging the owners of them for inspection — these plans for coercing landlords into giving additional advantages for the same money are nothing but repetitions of the old proposal, that "the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops," and are just as incapable of reahzation. The first result of an attempt to carry them out would be a diminution of the profits of house- owners. The interest on capital invested in houses no longer being so high, capital would seek other investments. The building of houses would cease to keep pace with the growth of population. Hence would arise a gradual increase in the number of occupants to each house. And this change in the ratio of houses to people would continue until the demand for houses had raised the profits of the landlord to what they were, and undJ, by overcrowding, new sanitary evils had been pro- duced to parallel the old ones". If, by building in larger ^ Such results have actually heen brought about by the Metropolitan Buildings Act. Whilst this Act has introduced some reform in the better class of houses (although to nothing like the expected extent, for the surveyors are bribed, and moreover the fees claimed by them for inspecting every trifling alteration operate as penalties on improvement), it has entailed far more evil, just where it was intended to confer benefit. An architect and surveyor describes it as having worked after the following manner. In those districts of London consisting of inferior houses, built in that insubstantial fashion which the New Building Act was to mend, there obtains an average rent, sufficiently remunerative to landlords whose houses were run up economically before the New Building Act passed. This existing average rent fixes the rent that must be charged in these districts for new houses of the same accommodation — that is, the same number of rooms, for the people they are built for do not appreciate the extra safety of living within walls strengthened with hoop-iron bond. Now it turns out upon trial, that houses built in accordance with the present regulations, and let at this established rate, bring in nothing like a reasonable return. Builders have consequently confined themselves to erecting houses in better districts (where the possibility of a profitable competition with pre-existing houses shows that those pre-existing houses were tolerably substantial), and have ceased to erect dwellings for the masses, except in the suburbs where no pressing sanitary evils exist Meanwhile, in the inferior districts above described, has re- sulted an increase of overcrowding — half-a-dozen families in a house — a score lodgers to a room. Nay, more than this has resulted. That state of miserable dilapidation SANITARY SUPERVISION. 386 masses, and to a greater height, such an economy can be achieved in ground-rent, the cost of outer walls, and of roof- ing, as to give more accommodation at the same expense as now (which happily seems probable), then the fact only needs proving, and, as before said, the competition of capital for in- vestment will do all that can be done; but if not, the beUef that legislative coercion can make things better is a fit com- panion to the behef that it can fix the price of bread and the rate of wages.
Let those who are anxious to improve the health of the poor, through the indirect machinery of law, bring their zeal to bear directly upon the work to be done. Let them appeal to men's sympathies, and again to their interests. Let them prove to people of property that the making of these reforms wiU pay. Let them show that the productive powers of the labourer will be increased by bettering his health, whilst the poors' -rates will be diminished. Above all, let them demand the removal of those obstacles which existing legislation puts in the way of sanitary improvement". Their efforts thus directed will really into which these abodes of the poor are allowed to fall, is due to the absence of com- petition from new houses. Landlords do not find their tenants tempted awaj' by the offer of better accommodation. Repairs, being unnecessary for securing the largest amount of profit, are rot made. And the fees demanded by the surveyor, even when an additional chimney-pot is put up, supply ready excuses for doing nothing. Thus, whilst the New Building Act has caused some improvement where improvement was not greatly needed, it has caused none where it was needed, but has instead generated evils worse than those it was to remove. In fact, for a large percentage of the very horrors which our sanitary agitators are now trying to cure by law, we have to thank previous agitators of the same school!
^ Writing before the repeal of the brick-duty, the Builder says, " It is supposed that one-fourth of the cost of a dwelling which lets for 2s. 6d. or 3s. a week is caused by the expense of the title-deeds and the tax on wood and bricks used in its construc- tion. Of course the owner of such property must be remunerated, and he therefore charges 7id. or 9d. a week to cover these burdens." Mr. C. Gatlif^ secretary to the Society for Improving the Dwellings of the 'Working Classes, describing the effect of the window-tax, says, " They are now paying upon their institution in St. Pancras the sum of £162 16s. in window-duties, or 1 per cent, per annum upon the original outlay. The average rental paid by the Society's tenants is 6s. 6(i. per week, and the window-duty deducts from this Hd. per week." — Deputation to Lord Ashley, see TiiMS. Jan. 31, 1850. Mr. W. Voller, a master-taUor, says, " I lately inserted 386 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
promote progress. Whereas their efforts as now directed are either needless or injurious.
These endeavours to increase the salubrity of town-life by law, are not only open to the criticism that the natiu'al forces already at work render them unnecessaij, and to the additional criticism that some of the things strained after are impossible of legislative achievement, but it must farther be observed, that even the desiderata which acts of parliament will reach, can be so reached only through very faulty instrumentahties. It is, in this case, as in many others, the peculiarity of what are oddly styled " practical measures," that they supersede agencies which are answering well by agencies which are not likely to answer well. Here is a heavy charge of inefficiency brought against the drains, cesspools, stink-traps, &c., of England in general, and London in particular. The evidence is voluminous and conclusive, and by common consent a verdict of proven is re- turned. Citizens look grave and determine to petition parlia- ment about it. Parliament promises to consider the matter; and after the usual amount of debate, says — " Let there be a Board of Health." Whereupon petitioners rub their hands, and look out for great things. They have unbounded sim- plicity— these good citizens. Legislation may disappoint them fifty times running, without at all shaking their faith in its efficiency. They hoped that Church abuses would be rectified by the Ecclesiastical Commission: the poor curates can say whether that hope has been reahzed. Backed by an act of parliament, the Poor-Law Commissioners were to have eradi- cated able-bodied pauperism: yet, vmtil checked by the re- cent prosperity, the poors'-rates have been rapidly rising to their old level. The New Building Act was to have given the people of London better homes; whereas, as we lately saw, one of Dr. Amott's ventilators in the chimney of the workshop, little thinking I should be called upon by Mr. Badger, our district surveyor, for a fee of 25s." — Morning Chronicle, Feb. 4, 1850.
SANITARY SUPERVISION. 387 it has made worse the homes that most wanted improving. Men were sanguine of reforming criminals by the silent system, or the separate system; hut, if we are to judge hy the dis- putes of their respective advocates, neither of these plans is very successful. Pauper children were to have been made into good citizens hy industrial education; from all quarters, how- ever, come statements that a very large percentage of them get into gaol, or become prostitutes, or return to the workhouse. The measures enjoined by the Vaccination Act of 1840 were to have exterminated small-pox; yet the Eegistrar-General's reports show that the deaths from small-pox have been in- creasing. And thus does year after year add to those abortive schemes, of which so many have been quoted (pp. 8, 46, 288). Yet scarcely a doubt seems to arise, respecting the competency of legislators to do what they profess. From the times when they tried to fix the value of money down to our own day, when they have but just abandoned tlie attempt to fix the price of com, statesmen have been undertaking all kinds of things, from regulating the cut of boot-toes, up to preparing people for Heaven; and have been constantly failing, or producing widely- different results from those intended. Nevertheless such inexhaustible faith have men, that, although they see this, and although they are daily hearing of imbecihties in pubhc depart- ments— of Admiralty Boards that squander three millions a year in building bad ships and breaking them up again — of Woods and Forests Commissioners who do not even know the rental of the estates they manage — of bungling excise-chemists who commit their chiefs to losing prosecutions, for which com- pensation has to be made — yet government needs but to an- nounce another plausible project, and men straightway hurrah, and throw up their caps, in the full expectation of getting all that is promised.
But the belief that Boards of Health, and the like, will never effect what is hoped, needs not whoUy rest either upon abstract considerations, or upon our experience of state-instrumentalities in general. We have one of these organizations at work, and, 388 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
as far as may be at present judged, it has done anything but answer people's expectations. To condemn it, because choked sewers, and open gullv-holes, and filthy alleys remain much as they were, would, perhaps, be unreasonable, for time is needed to rectify evils so widely established. But there is one test by which we may fairly estimate its efficiency, viz., its conduct be- fore and during the late pestilence. It had more than a year's notice that the cholera was on its way here. There were two whole sessions of parhament intervening between the time when a second invasion from that disease was foreseen and the time when the mortality was highest. The Board of Health had, therefore, fiiU opportunity to put forth its powers, and to get greater powers if it wanted them. Well, what was the first step that might have been looked for from it? Shall we not say the suppression of intramural interments? Burying the dead in the midst of the hving was manifestly hurtful; the evils at- tendant on the practice were universally recognised; and to put it down required little more than a simple exercise of authority. If the Board of Health believed itself possessed of authority sufficient for this, why did it not use that authority when the advent of the epidemic was rumoured? If it thought its au- thority not great enough (which can hardly be, remembering what it ultimately did), then why did it not obtain more? Instead of taking either of these steps, however, it occupied itself in considering future modes of water-supply, and devis- ing systems of sewage. Whilst the cholera was approaching, the Board of Health was cogitating over reforms, from which the most sanguine could not expect any considerable benefit for years to come. And then, when the enemy was upon us, this guardian, in which men were putting their trust, suddenly bestirred itself, and did what, for the time being, made worse the evils to be remedied. As was said by a speaker, at one of the medical meetings held during the height of the cholera, " the Commissioners of Public Health had adopted the very means Hkely to produce that complaint. Instead of taking their measures years ago, they had stirred up all sorts of abominations SANITARY SUPERVISION. 389 now. They had removed dunghills and cesspools, and added fael tenfold to the fire that existed. (Hear, hear.) Never since he could recollect had there been such accumulations of abomi- nable odours as since the Health of Towns Commission had at- tempted to purify the atmosphere. (A laugh, and Hear, hear.)" At length, when, in spite of all that had been done (or, perhaps, partly in consequence of it), the mortality continued to increase, the closing of graveyards was decided upon, in the hope, as we must suppose, that the mortality would thereby be checked. As though, when there were hundreds of thousands of bodies decomposing, the ceasing to add to them would immediately produce an appreciable effect!
. If to these faots we add the further one, that, notwithstanding the directions issued for prophylactic treatment, and the system of domiciliary visits, the cholera carried off a greater number than before, we have some reason for thinking that this sanitary guardianship did no good, hut, it may be, even harm.
Should it be said that the Board of Health is badly consti- tuted, or has not sufficient power, and that had a better organ- ization been given to it we should have seen different results, the reply is, that the almost invariable occurrence of some such fatal hitch is one of the reasons for condemning these inter- ferences. There is always some provoking if iu the way. If the established clergy were what they should be, a state- church might do some good. If parish relief were judiciously administered, a poor-law would not be so bad a thing. And if "a sanitary organization could be made to do just what it is intended to do, something might be said in its favour.
Even could state-agency compass for our towns the most perfect salubrity, it would be in the end better to remain as we are, rather than obtain such a benefit by such means. It is quite possible to give too much even for a great desideratum. However valuable good bodily health may be, it is very' dearly.
390 SANITARY SUPERVISION.
purchased when mental health goes in exchange. Whoso thinks that government can supply sanitary advantages for nothing, or at the cost of more taxes only, is woefizlly mistaken. They must be paid for with character as well as with taxes. A full equivalent must be given in other coin than gold, and even more than an equivalent.