within the jurisdiction of any local authority should be the entire natural area for drainage. At present no such plans or surveys are accessible to builders or others engaged in works requiring a knowledge of the level of the adjacent lands. Hence serious losses have been entailed on the public by the construction of sewers and drains at improper levels, and of a capacity insufficient for the probable wants of a future population; and houses have been placed in situations, regardless of the means of drainage. Great loss and inconvenience from this cause have very generally occurred, and even very lately it has become necessary to enlarge and deepen some of the sewers recently put in. The prevailing want of information among the surveyors and other officers having the charge of the drainage of towns, regarding the levels of the sewers, and frequently even the entire ignorance of their existence, may be traced to the absence of any proper survey. At Bristol, the first attempt to form a complete map of the sewers was commenced during the inquiry of the visiting commissioners, and in the town of Preston it was a work of several weeks to open the streets in order to ascertain the lines and depths of the sewers. In some large towns, as Wigan, Rochdale, and Bolton, there is not the slightest knowledge of the plans of the sewers. The charge by the Ordnance Office for surveying such a parish as St. Clement Danes, and laying down contour lines, with the sewer, gas, and water pipes, would not amount to more than 88. per acre; but if such additions were made while a survey for the Ordnance map was in progress, the extra cost would be reduced to 1s. 4d. per acre, or to 6d. only, if the levels merely are taken and bench marks inserted; the scale in that instance would be 60 inches to the mile, but it appears that the extent of the scale would scarcely make any appreciable difference in the cost. This cost would vary in a trifling degree, according to the density of the dwellings and population in a given area, but it has been calculated that for laying down the levels, an outlay of from 307. to 407. would be enough for the average size of towns containing 20,000 persons; from 100l. to 1201. for towns of 60,000; and from 2001. to 2501. for those of 120,000 inhabitants. The commissioners in the course of their investigations noted numerous evils to arise from limited jurisdiction for drainage. The suburban houses of many large towns are under no jurisdiction whatever, and sewers and drains are constructed or not, according to the whim of builders or occupiers. The outfalls of the natural drainage in several instances is occupied by dams, &c., for obtaining mill-power, as at Bradford, Halifax, and other places. The upper and lower parts of a town again are under a different set of authorities, and these clash and obstruct each other. missioners think the Crown should be empowered to define and to enlarge, from time to time, the area for drainage included within the jurisdiction of the local administrative body. The com The necessary works for the drainage and sewerage of towns demand a surveyor of competent information. It appears, however, that local improvement acts do not require any qualifications, nor do they advert to the necessity of skill and experience in the officer; indeed, many of them. do not so much as allude to the office. Everybody knows that merit does not always secure the favour of public bodies; so the blind leads the blind, and sad botches they make. The eminent truth of the following remarks is obvious. "All local works of improvement should be planned, and their execution superintended by a person having a competent knowledge of engineering. New subjects, connected most closely with the general health of the community, are now constantly attracting the attention of persons engaged in works of construction. The importance of the questions of ventilation and warming having been fully established by recent investigations, particularly demands the attention of the architect and engineer. The important duties which may in future devolve upon the officers charged with the construction of works, and the large discretionary power that must be vested in them, will undoubtedly render it necessary to establish some mode of testing the competency of persons offering themselves as candidates to fill such situations. Some assurance should be given to the public that the persons intrusted with these responsible duties are properly qualified.” (p. 36.) The deduction made from inquiries on this point is embodied in the following: "We, therefore, recommend that the local administrative body appoint the executive and other officers under it; that the appointment and dismissal of the chief surveyor be subject to approval; that such officer produce proof of his qualification for the office to which he shall be appointed, and, if required, be subject to an examination.” (p.37.) Hitherto public bodies have been found slow to act for the general good, and easily moved by private feelings in the removal of nuisances, and the regulation of matters involving the public health. The commissioners observe, that the contentions of parties and the influences of local interests frequently impose a serious obstacle to any scheme of improvement, from the unfounded fear that their interests will be affected. Such persons frequently obtain great influence in the decision of questions in relation to any alterations calculated to effect improvement in the condition of the working classes. It seems a fair proposition, that where the public welfare requires it, the inhabitants generally should be made responsible for the execution of the duties imposed upon them by law, for sanatory objects, on the same principle as they are now liable, for the public benefit, to repair the highways. On these and other grounds, the commissioners "Recommend that, upon representation being made by the municipal or other authority, or by a certain number of the inhabitants of any town or district, or part thereof, setting forth defects in the condition of such place, as to drainage, sewerage, paving, cleansing, or other sanatory matters, the Crown direct a competent person to inspect and report upon the state of the defects, and, if satisfied of the necessity, have power to enforce upon the local administrative body the due execution of the law.” (p. 39.) The enormous defects in the construction of main and branch sewers in many towns, and their total want in many courts, alleys, and close thoroughfares, have been strongly pressed upon the attention of the commissioners. The result of their deliberation on this point is, that the construction of sewers, branch sewers, and house drains, ought to be intrusted to the local administrative body. After one or two recommendations as to the modes in which the necessary funds should be raised, the commissioners proceed to the important matter of paving. They do not seem, however, to have devoted much, if any, attention to the comparative merits and hygienic relations of the various kind of pavement lately brought into notice, but simply content themselves with expressing the opinion, that the whole of the paving, and the construction of the surface of all streets, courts and alleys, be placed under the management of the same authority as the drainage, and that the limits of jurisdiction for both purposes, wherever practicable, be coextensive: also that the principle before submitted in respect to the cost of making drains and sewers, and the equitable distribution of the expense, be adhered to in the case of laying out, levelling, and paving of streets, courts, and alleys; but for the purpose of insuring the greatest efficiency and economy in the execution of the work, they recommend that it be performed by the local public officers. Few of our readers are unacquainted with the distressingly filthy condition of the streets and courts occupied by the labouring classes of towns; of the numerous and formidable diseases arising therefrom, and of the difficulties such a condition raises against the successful treatment of disease. All this is proved by the most extensive and elaborate statistical data in the reports of the commission. It is a more interesting question now to determine the mode in which the refuse of a town can be best removed. The earliest regulation appears to have been this; that all householders should cleanse that portion of the street before their respective houses, and to heap up the dirt and soil in preparation for the scavengers. We find such duties prescribed in a very early act for Liverpool (21 Geo. II, c. 24). It is thereby enacted, that the occupiers shall sweep their portion of the streets at least twice a-week, on every Monday and Thursday, or oftener if required, and that the scavengers shall attend every Tuesday and Friday, "or oftener if occasion be." It appears, however, that although the provisions of this act, positively directing the scavengers to cleanse all the streets twice a-week, were in force up to the year 1842, it was the practice to cleanse the minor streets only once a-week, and the others, where there was less traffic, when required. The manifest inconveniences of such a system naturally led to the appointment of scavengers paid by the householders. In Aberdeen, the local act requires the appointed scavengers to cleanse the foot-pavements, and the whole of the streets, closes, courts, &c. every day, under a penalty. This work is done at a profit of £600 a-year to the city, and in other towns in Scotland similar examples are found. The commissioners observe that the law which the legislature has made so stringent at Aberdeen, and which has been carried into execution there and at Edinburgh, may with equal advantage be applied generally to all parts of Great Britain. The removal of dirt, ashes, and rubbish from all houses and premises is another important point in town-cleansing. This has also been made a profitable affair. In the metropolis the ashes are an article of considerable trade. The contractors are in the habit of paying large sums of money to the parishes for the right to collect them, and the large parishes frequently make a considerable profit from the exercise of this right, which aids in the diminution of the rates, after paying the expense of cleansing (in the mode considered sufficient by them) all the streets and roads in the parish. The commissioners, for these and other reasons, recommend that the provisions in local acts, vesting the right to all the dust, ashes, and street refuse in the local administrative body, be made general; and that the cleansing of all privies and cesspools at proper times, and on due notice, be exclusively intrusted to it. The removal of nuisances is the next question considered by the commissioners. The first noticed is that of "midden-steads," or dung heaps. Perhaps there are no more general and frequent sources of fever than these. In Ireland they probably cause the greater proportion of fever cases. That country, in fact, may be medico-topographically described as the land of dung-hills and fevers. But in England, with all its pretensions to cleanliness, towns are bad enough. Let us take Sunderland as an example. In this borough, on the testimony of its inhabitants, there are no fewer than 182 public midden-steads, receptacles for filth of all kinds, which are stated to constitute one of the greatest nuisances within the borough. They are generally situated in the close, narrow streets and lanes inhabited by the poorer classes, and are frequently resorted to by them. In some cases these midden-steads are actually in the basement floor of a dwelling-house, the upper stories of which are occupied as bed-rooms, &c. The contents of these midden-steads are afterwards conveyed to large depôts, of which there are two in the parish, one very lately advertised as containing 1000 tons for sale. This belonged to the borough. The state of the slaughter-houses are also an almost constant source of complaint. They are very rarely placed under any regulations with regard to the constant removal of the animal refuse, their proper ventillation, or a sufficient supply of water to ensure due cleanliness. The improper situations in which these places are found, sometimes even under dwellinghouses, and the effect produced upon the health of the inhabitants, is described in the report on the towns of Lancashire. In these towns slaughter-houses are found below dwelling-houses, the smell in which was most insufferable. In many of these cases the inhabitants looked pale and sickly, and diarrhoea frequently prevailed, although absent from the court, contiguous. Yet the state of the law prevents any interference with the manner in which these slaughter-houses are conducted. True it is that aggrieved parties may indict the occupiers of the premises, but they being labouring men, can neither afford the time nor money to pursue such indictments, nor do they belong to a class aware of the pernicious effects arising from the presence of decomposing refuse. The uncertainty of the result, moreover, is alone sufficient to deter even those who have both the means and the inclination to suppress them. In scarcely one instance, however, in which shambles or slaughter-houses have come under the observation of the commissioners, either in the metropolis or in the provincial cities or towns, have there been found in force any regulations or authoritative supervision to compel the speedy and regular removal of offal from, or the efficient cleansing of such places. They have, on the contrary, been found to be, almost without exception, centres for the diffusion of noisome influences, affecting, with more or less intensity, the immediate vicinity, deteriorating the sanatory condition of the surrounding population, commonly poor and dense, as recorded in the local reports of the commissioners, and in a more remote degree vitiating the general atmosphere of the town, and thus becoming a nuisance to the inhabitants at large. A second evil and nuisance, necessarily contingent upon the locality of slaughter-houses, however stringently supervised and regulated, in the midst of large and populous towns, is the quantity of animal ordure deposited upon the public streets and thoroughfares leading to such slaughter-houses, which, besides forming a most offensive addition to the ordinary surface-filth, excites and accelerates its decomposition. This evil is augmented in the ratio of the size of the town, and where, as in London, most of the surface-filth of the streets is washed down into the sewers, the continual passage of cattle, sheep, and pigs, in the neighbourhood of the intra-mural slaughter-houses, must materially increase the amount of that decomposing matter, the emanations of which are constantly escaping from the untrapped gulley-holes, to infect the atmosphere of the metropolis. Nor ought the occasionally fatal injuries, and the constant peril of life and limb, incurred by the inhabitants of large towns, the streets of which are so frequently traversed by goaded and over-driven cattle to be overlooked. The practice of keeping pigs is a most odious nuisance. They are eminently stinking animals when in a state of confinement. In Birmingham there are 1600 pigsties: at Sunderland pigsties were said to be the foci of cholera. It is remarkable that, although there are by-laws in several corporate towns forbidding the accumulation of offensive matter occasioned by these sties, and by slaughter-houses, they are totally disregarded, as, for example, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Sunderland, Norwich, &c. The powers of courts-leet have been equally inefficient. This inefficiency manifestly arises from the reluctance of a party to bear witness against his neighbour. On this point of health-police, the commissioners ob serve: "By the introduction of better regulations on the subjects which we have now been noticing, it is to be hoped that the occasions for any interference of this kind will become less frequent; but as the most constant attention is required for the punctual enforcement of any laws or regulations, we are of opinion that an officer should be appointed in each town, who, in addition to other duties that may be placed under his charge, should be required to report upon any neglect on the part of the scavengers, or any infringement of rules for the prevention of nuisances, or of any other matter affecting the health of the inhabitants, and, if necessary, to commence proceedings in his own name, and as an informer on the part of the public, for the punishment of offenders before the magistrates Such an officer would receive much valuable assistance in the execution of his duties, and the public would be checked in their infringement of the law, if the police were directed to report upon any breach or neglect of it. These public servants, now generally a numerous and efficient body in each large town, although the constant witnesses of such offences, are not charged with the duty of reporting them to their superiors, or any officer empowered to correct them. It has been represented to us that this duty could be most efficiently and conveniently executed by the police, without any serious addition to their labours, or increase of expense to the inhabitants." (p.79.) The commissioners propose that the keeping of pigs, the collection of dung, and the establishment of slaughter-houses, within the precincts of towns, should be absolutely forbidden, and summarily abated. Perhaps, |